From time to time - and usually over the winter - I like to go to London for a day out. I have no idea how the seed was planted but for years it was on my list to have a look around Highgate Cemetery which was originally established in the Victorian era. It is now Grade 1 listed.
As is now usual of course - the starting point was an internet search and Highgate Cemetery has a fully functioning website. The Cemetery is divided into West and East. The West side can only be visited under a guided tour - which takes about 70 minutes. I booked the tour online and think I paid £12 for two. It turned out to be really good value - because it was fascinating.
It is easy to get there. Northern Line tube to Archway, exit for Highgate Hill. Shortish walk up the hill to a gate on the left into Waterlow Park. A pleasant walk through the park takes you to the entrance to the 2 cemetaries in Swains Lane.
Our guide Simon was one of the Friends of Highgate. He explained how London's population doubled in size to just under 2 million in the latter part of the 18th century / early 19th century. There was totally inadequate provision for disposal of bodies and as a consequence disease was rife including dramatic outbreaks of cholera. Cemeteries like Highgate were set up as commercial organizations to solve the problem - they were nothing to do with the church as such. This combined with the Victorian attitude to burial and their trait to be ostentatious (a show of wealth was typically important to them) - results in the Highgate we are now left with (although it is still a fully functioning cemetery).
Simon presented us with many interesting facts and insights into Victorian life and the emergence of Highgate and how it reflects the history of our society over the last 150 years or so. He also told a good number of anecdotes about the lives of individual people buried there. I could try and recount them - but think I should just encourage you to go and see and hear them for yourselves.
Strangely enough for us it was both an uplifting and thought provoking place to visit. I learned a lot of general interest but more importantly - it maybe answered some questions I might have not have otherwise posed - personal ones.
I have copied and pasted part of the Highgate cemetery visitors brochure to provide some background
Additionally I have downloaded the Wiki entry :
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. It is designated Grade I on the Historic England Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.[1] It is divided into two parts, named the East and West cemetery. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves at Highgate Cemetery.[2] Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as well as for its de facto status as a nature reserve
The cemetery in its original form – the northwestern wooded area – opened in 1839, as part of a plan to provide seven large, modern cemeteries, now known as the "Magnificent Seven", around the outside of central London. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards attached to individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead. The initial design was by architect and entrepreneur Stephen Geary.
On Monday 20 May 1839, Highgate Cemetery was dedicated to St. James[3] by the Right Reverend Charles James Blomfield, Lord Bishop of London. Fifteen acres were consecrated for the use of the Church of England, and two acres set aside for Dissenters. Rights of burial were sold for either limited period or in perpetuity. The first burial was Elizabeth Jackson of Little Windmill Street, Soho, on 26 May.
Highgate, like the others of the Magnificent Seven, soon became a fashionable place for burials and was much admired and visited. The Victorian attitude to death and its presentation led to the creation of a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings. It occupies a spectacular south-facing hillside site slightly downhill from the top of the hill of Highgate itself, next to Waterlow Park. In 1854 the area to the east of the original area across Swains Lane was bought to form the eastern part of the cemetery. This part is still used today for burials, as is the western part. Most of the open unforested area in the new addition still has fairly few graves on it.
Circle of Lebanon, West Cemetery
The cemetery's grounds are full of trees, shrubbery and wildflowers, most of which have been planted and grown without human influence. The grounds are a haven for birds and small animals such as foxes. The Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon (topped by a huge Cedar of Lebanon) feature tombs, vaults and winding paths dug into hillsides. For its protection, the oldest section, which holds an impressive collection of Victorian mausoleums and gravestones, plus elaborately carved tombs, allows admission only in tour groups. The eastern section, which contains a mix of Victorian and modern statuary, can be toured unescorted.
The tomb of Karl Marx, the Egyptian Avenue and the Columbarium are Grade I listed buildings.
Because of the Karl Marx association a variety of Socialist leaders and thinkers are buried within the cemetery grounds.
Highgate Cemetery was featured in the popular media from the 1960s to the late 1980s for its so-called occult past, particularly as being the alleged site of the "Highgate Vampire".
Friends of Highgate Cemetery
The Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust was set up in 1975 and acquired the freehold of both East and West Cemeteries by 1981, since when they have had responsibility for the maintenance of the location. In 1984 they published Highgate Cemetery: Victorian Valhalla by John Gay.
I attach a few photos. You will see many of the graves have been affected by subsidence and/or tree root damage. The friends of Highgate are pursuing a policy of "managed neglect". It is not their policy to restore as such.
The overriding thought for us is how much ideas of dealing with our bodies on death have moved from Victorian times. Far more people are now cremated. The thought of being interned in a dark vault - encased in a lead coffin so nothing of the earthly body can escape is quite grim in my view. But you can still be buried at Highgate and people are.
I attach a few photos :
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| Managed neglect |
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| Rossetti - a fascinating story |
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| Recent - Litvenenko and plutonium |
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| The largest vault room. Apparently it has a beautiful white marble interior and has the room for many more but the family have died out. |
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| It is very interesting |
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| Cedar of Lebanon |
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| Tom Sayers - the legendary boxer |
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| Egyptian Avenue |
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| A more recent grave stone - Beryl Bainbridge. Plots close to paths cost more. |
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| Some in the family are believers some are not. One side of the vault is consecrated ground the other half is not. Good business to take all comers. |
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| East Highgate - more open - more current - no guide required. |
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Not one of my heroes but interesting none the less
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Later in the afternoon we crossed the river to Tate Modern on the south bank of the Thames . This was certainly in contrast to Highgate. It is somewhere I have been a number of times but a first for Jo.
As with Highgate the only possible recommendation is you go there yourself. I always enjoy Tate Modern - but I do not understand it. Much passes me by and Jo was scathing at the artists gall - but it is all harmless I guess. We agreed some exhibits were pleasing to look at - good on the eye. Much wasn't. What we both struggled with (and amused us at the affront to our intelligence or otherwise) was the artists interpretation of the "meaning" behind their work - or what it represented. We felt like shouting out "THE KING IS NOT WEARING ANY CLOTHES". One thing I am sure of - much of the work would be incomprehensible without the artists interpretation and much of the work appeared shoddy.
This is a link to one installation we found particularly unconvincing - ha!
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gowda-behold-t14118
Here are some limited examples :
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| Tate Modern (in the old Bankside Power Station) - now easily accessed via the pedestrian Millennium Bridge |
So without doubt we had a great day out in London - and it cost peanuts because the Tate is basically free. On Saturday we disciplined ourselves to do a 9 mile run and I had a fantastic afternoon slouched on the settee watching the 6 nations rugby! On Sunday had a good bike ride out in the woods followed by perfect food and beer. A full and very enjoyable - and thought provoking long weekend. Excellent indeed.
