Highgate Cemetery

Thursday August 15, 2024.

Highgate Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in London, if not the world, and was a place that I have wanted to visit for years.

So, with Emma, Erin and Keilyn in tow, we headed to the cemetery, arriving at around 11:45, checked in at reception and awaited the start of our tour at noon.

Exactly on time Nigel arrived and introduced himself to our group, explaining that the tour takes between 75 and and 90 minutes. Then we set off up the steps to the West Cemetery. 

At the top of steps we stopped and Nigel introduced us to James Selby. James Selby had taken a wager, in 1888, that he couldn't take his coach and horses to Brighton and back, within eight hours. It was a journey of over four hours, one way. James Selby completed the round trip in seven hours and fifty minutes.

We then moved further up Colonnade Path where we were introduced to more of the cemetery's guests and the giant mausoleum of Otway, with its glass skylights and iron railings in the shape of upturned cannon, with spiked cannonballs.

Close to this was the grave of Alexander Litvinenko and then the wellkept family plot of Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou. aka George Michael.

A fox appeared from between some gravestones, took a quick glance at the group and then disappeared into the undergrowth.

We then continued up Main Drive and visited the grave of Elizabeth Jackson, who was the first person to be buried in the cemetery.

Before we knew it we were approaching Egyptian Avenue, with its obelisks. The avenue, which is now roofless, was lined with vaults. 

Each of these vaults are home to not just the dead, but orb weaver spiders, of which there are thousands. These spiders are usually only found in caves and it is thought they may have been living in the cemetery for over 150 years.

Exiting Egyptian Avenue brought us out into the Circle of Lebanon, with its massive family vaults. 

Nigel stopped by various ones of interest, telling us stories and some of the things that had been filmed here, normally without permission. For instance, the Aird family Mausoleum was used in the film 'The Abominable Dr Phibes.

We then saw the tomb of George Wombwell, before Nigel unlocked the gate of the Terrace Catacombs and we delved into the cool darkness. 

We saw some of the lead-lined coffins, some in a poor state, while others were still behind the original glass. 

Towards the eastern end we could see the damage done to some of the coffins, when people, believing that vampires were in the catacombs, broke in to destroy the bodies.

We were told about the Beer Mausoleum before we went off to see the grave of Thomas Sayers, who holds the the record for the biggest funeral in the history of the cemetery.

We then travelled down Morgan Road and on to Sayers Road, before heading down Faraday Path to the grave of Michael Faraday.

We then continued along the path until we found ourselves back at the courtyard.

West Cemetery Gallery

From then, with the tour over, we went off to explore the East Cemetery with a map showing where the most popular graves are located.

We took a leisurely stroll around this cemetery, walking along gravel paths to find specific graves, before sticking to the main path for the remainder of our walk.

Besides Karl Marx, we saw the graves of Francis Elgar, David Lloyd Pack, George Eliot, Paul Foot, Malcolm McLaren, Jeremy Beadle, Alan Sillitoe and so many more.

A fox appeared and stood while I took a photo, before it loped of into the trees.

Larger memorials are here, too, like a London Fire Brigade memorial and the burial site of the 78 Sisters of Bethany.

With so much to see, in both cemeteries, I will definitely have to revisit and take more time exploring.

East Cemetery Gallery

Brief History

Highgate Cemetery, lies on the southern slope of Highgate West Hill.

It was established by the London Cemetery Association, which was founded by Stephen Geary, an architect and civil engineer, 1836.

The original 20 acre site was once part of the grounds of a mansion that belonged to Sir William Ashurst, who was Lord Mayor of London, in 1693.

Stephen Geary designed and planted the cemetery, designing an archway as the entrance, linking the two Gothic chapels with the porter's lodge. Stephen Geary appointed James Bunstone Bunning as the company's surveyor, in 1839. David Ramsey, the landscape gardener, designed serpentine roads and footpaths that lead upwards, through the burial areas, to the buildings and terrace beneath St Michael's Church.

You approach these buildings through an arch, flanked by Egyptian columns and obelisks, beyond which is the Egyptian Avenue. With tombs along each side, this avenue leads under a bridge to the Circle of Lebanon. The Circle of Lebanon is a circular passageway with catacombs built on each side. Each tomb is a square compartment has stone shelves, for coffins, and cast-iron doors. The Circle of Lebanon was built around a Cedar of Lebanon tree, which stood in the grounds of Sir William Ashurst's garden.

The Bishop of London consecrated the cemetery in May 20 1839 and dedicated it to St James. 

Rights of burial were sold either for a limited period or in perpetuity and Elizabeth Jackson, of Little Windmill Street, Soho, was the first burial on May 26. 

The cemetery became on overnight success, not only as a place for burial, but as a tourist attraction, where people admired the buildings while also taking in the magnificent views of London.

The cemetery proved so successful that an extension was opened in 1857, on the other eastern side of Swain's Lane. With this extension the total area of the cemetery reached 37 acres.

The eastern cemetery is more of a natural woodland and is home to the tomb of Karl Marx. It was this tomb that was moved from an obscure area of the cemetery to its current position in 1956.

The chapels continued in use, for both parts, and used a bier to lower coffins, by hydraulics, into a basement, where they travelled through a tunnel, beneath Swain's Lane, to the eastern cemetery. Thereby avoiding the funeral carriages, mourners, crowds and visitors.

New catacombs of the outer ring were added in the 1870s in a classical style, rather than in an Egyptian or Gothic style.

The cemetery is still in use with many a famous person taking up their final resting place in this historic and greatest of London's 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries.

However, with age comes ware, and as the graves have begun to slip and monuments have begun to tilt at awkward angles, the place has taken on an even more eerie feel. People no longer picnic between the tombs, nor hide from a rain shower in the catacombs. The cemetery now has an air of decaying grandeur that you can almost 'feel'.

In August 2019, tree surgeons, who had been trying to save the Cedar of Lebanon tree, had to condemn it, as it was beyond saving. The great tree is believed to be over 250 years old.

The tree had survived a lightning strike and deep winters throughout its life, but a fungus had begun to take hold over large sections of it.

Around 25,000 people walked beneath the tree every year and, as it sits on top of a Grade I listed structure, a collapse would have been catastrophic.

Volunteers were invited to visit the tree and to witness it in its final days before it was felled.

By 1888 over 100,000 were buried here.

Today it is estimated that there are over 53,000 graves with over 170,000 internments.