Cemeteries of London

So guys, I've got an actual confirmed meaning. Cemeteries of London is actually a song about the Thames River in London. During the Victorian era, the Thames actually was in essence a Cemetery, so many people threw themselves into the river as suicide and alongside people were often murdered with their bodies dumped in the river, it was a convenient place to dispose of people. Deaths in the river were so common that they actually had a Thames River Morgue, to house all the dread bodies that washed up from the river or were found.

"We go underneath the arches" Is also a reference to the Thames, if you've actually lived in London or rode on the river, you'll notice all the arches you have to go under at various points from bridges on the water.

"So we rode down to the river where the Victorian ghosts pray For the curses to be broken" They pray at the river for the curses to be broken (In English folklore it is believed when someone is murdered and placed in a river/space of water that they become cursed forcing them to haunt the location, i.e lady of the lake etc. )

"There are ghost towns in the ocean The ocean" Is a reference to where all the spirits end up once they have been washed down the Thames river, once they end up in the North sea, collecting over the years.

While many people think the song isn't directly about spirits, it actually is focused on London and it's victorian past/deaths.

If anyone has actually lived in London, they will understand this song.

In fact people still drown often in the Thames, in 1999 before the millennium, for the first time London re-opened it's morgue to line it with dead bodies from accidents on the new years. (People crowding on bridges and getting pushed in accidentally etc ) mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg24244.html

Also take a look here if you're interested in the history of the river and deaths surrounding it. (Was written in 1871 : query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html