Legend of London’s Time-Traveling Tomb

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The Victorians have always been fascinated by the idea of time travel. It seems that one place has left people puzzled. Located in west London, is Brompton Cemetery, it remains a wondrous curiosity of sorts.

Tomb of Hannah Courtoy

Decorated with ancient hieroglyphics, is a mausoleum within the confines of the cemetery. It was once believed, that the Egyptian pharaohs had discovered many secrets and one of them was a portal used to teleport through time much like a gateway.

Tomb of Hannah Courtoy with her daughters

At this location, stands an imposing 20 foot tall pyramid peak, made from granite with a heavy bronze door, secured by only a keyhole lock. What is on the other side, continues to scratch the imagination of many people, including Stephen Coates. Mr. Coates is a film composer, musician and historian. His band is known as The Real Tuesday Weld.

He likely would be the key holder, as he continues to press for access to the mausoleum ever since the original key went missing back in the 1970’s. An advanced locksmith would be required, to open the great door…acting as a gate to the tomb itself. Stephen Coates insists that “It’s not a time machine, It’s a teleportation chamber.”

Image: Steven Coates

Image: Steven Coates

Mr. Coates wishes to be whisked away to ancient Egypt or to emerge from the tomb as a younger version of himself. Ironically, there is a Egyptologist named Joseph Bonomi Younger who is buried nearby the mausoleum.

Outside of the mausoleum, consists of various decorative properties which also includes accents lines, located on the front side. A rectangular shaped band of Egyptian hieroglyphs can be seen as well.

Tomb of Hannah Courtoy and her daughters

The age of the mausoleum dates back to 1850. Originally, it was intended as the final resting place, for Hannah Courtoy and two of her daughters Mary and Elizabeth. Hannah never married, but she had three daughters. The daughter not buried near her is Susannah.

The backstory about Hannah Courtoy is a curious one. She was born on January 26th, 1784. Her birth name was Hannah Peters. Hannah Peters fled an abusive father at a young age, worked as a housekeeper and as a tavern employee as well. Later, known as a high society London woman, she inherited a fortune from a merchant known as John Courtoy back in 1815. John was a wig maker in poor health, who had made a fortune from the money lending business.

Hannah’s final resting place, is a distinctive stand out, among the many who have been laid to rest here. Ever since Reuters published claims about this location containing a working time machine, the general public has since grown curious about it.

The cemetery itself, was established by Act of Parliament and later erected in 1839. The following year in 1840, the cemetery was originally known as the West of London and Westminster Cemetery.

Being managed by The Royal Parks, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This location is one of of Britain’s oldest and most distinguished garden cemeteries. There are 35,000 monuments here consisting of headstones to mausoleums. There are more than 205,000 people buried here.

Rumors continue to swirl about the distinctive mausoleum, like a large crack seen on it allegedly made from when someone teleport-ed through it.

(Source: Mental Floss, Independent UK and Wikipedia)

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