Highgate Cemetery

Karl Marx's memorial

One of the last things we did whilst we were still living in Hampstead was pay a visit to the Highgate Cemetery.  There's two parts to the cemetery, the East and West, imaginative names I know.  The East can be visited at anytime, and has more famous people buried there.  Whilst the West is more wild, and more architecturally interesting.  You can only visit the West with a tour though, and they do get booked out.  So be prepared to wait.

Once we had our tour time organised we headed over to the East cemetery to check it out first.  The cemetery was first opened in 1839 and was a profit making business.  It was meant to ease some of the pressure on the inner London cemeteries which were full, and a bit gross at the time.  It was pretty popular when it first opened, but as the plots filled up it became less economical.

Patrick Caulfield's grave, pop artist

It started to struggle in the 1930's before finally the company went bankrupt and the gates were shut.  There was then a period where the cemeteries were forgotten, and became overgrown and vandalised, before the Friends of Highgate Cemetery was formed.  This group acquired the freehold to both the east and west cemeteries.  They then spent a lot of time and effort restoring the memorials and gardens.  It really is a great place to visit, especially the west, with the overgrown grounds, and the fantastic monuments.

The most famous burial would have to be Karl Marx, but then there is also Douglas Adams, and George Eliot. As well as some other, slightly weirder people, like the first head of the masonic order.

Because most of the burials occurred during Victorian times, it's full of all this great symbolism.  A lot of angels, pillars cut in half (symbolising a life cut short), urns, and everything is covered in vines.  Really atmospheric.  But they are still used for burials, so the guy who was poisoned by Russian spies, Alexander Litvinenko, is buried there, he's one with a shortened pillar.

Typical of Highgate cemetery

In the west cemetery they also have catacombs, still with bodies interred, as well as the Egyptian Avenue, back when Egyptian things were all the rage in the UK, and the Cedar of Lebanon, a massive cedar tree growing above the Egyptian Avenue.

They also were surprisingly non-judgemental.  There are two chapels on the grounds, one for Anglicans and one for everyone else.  And some of the land has been set aside, so it's unconsecrated, available for those who aren't Church of England.

Egyptian Avenue