#Highgate Cemetery history

[sometimeslondon]

A path through Highgate Cemetery

[aneverydaything]

Day 2106, 29 March 2024

[wandering-jana]

Highgate Cemetery, London.

Explore Highgate on my website:

[20thcentutygeek]

The Magnificent Seven – Part One Highgate

Author: Molly Malone

Highgate Cemetery is a monument to the neo-Gothic vapourings and dramatics of Victorian Londoners. Designed as a ‘garden’ cemetery, it was built in the early part of the nineteenth century in an effort to prevent the over-population of the City of London by the dead. Nowadays it is a tourist destination as well as a functioning cemetery, and a celebration of managed decay and Victorian symbolism.

In 2024, if you wander around the City of London, you will inevitably come across countless tiny, well-kept and verdant gardens squeezed between offices, many of which are lined with gravestones that have been placed haphazardly against walls or, memorably, stacked around a tree in Old Saint Pancras. You don’t need to look too carefully: there are graves everywhere. Bunhill Fields off of Old Street is a wonderful larger example. Some are dotted with tombs worn smooth by centuries of exposure. These were the burial grounds of the Square Mile, which became an affront to both the sensibilities and the nostrils of Londoners. These supposed resting places were managed by unscrupulous clerics, who profited from each interment and piled bodies in pits twenty feet deep, before covering them with a mere dusting of earth. Bones, and worse, littered the ground. Grave robbing was a lucrative business, frowned upon by polite society but quietly encouraged by hospitals desperate for cadavers to train surgeons on.

The outcry against both this treatment of the dead, and the ‘miasma’ of decay that emanated from these burial grounds (which was considered toxic enough to be deadly) was a topic of heated discussion among those who were forced to bury their dead there, the newspapers and, eventually, the Houses of Parliament. Although it took several more decades for legislation to pass that would adequately address the sheer number of dead bodies resulting from the increasing population of London, work on the building of London’s Magnificent Seven cemeteries began in 1833.

Arguably the most famous of the Seven is Highgate, which opened in 1839 and is home to more than a few famous architectural wonders and notable inhabitants. In its heyday, Highgate was manned by enough security to warrant the cost of both burying a loved one there and the not terribly convenient necessity to travel to Highgate. The idea of garden cemeteries had been developed on the Continent, and Victorians were encouraged to stroll through a secure, beautifully maintained, and carefully curated space. Highgate could be seen from the centre of the City, and it was so different then to its current state of overgrown wildness. Sunday picnics were commonplace, although they are emphatically discouraged these days. Dozens of gardeners were employed, and the cemetery was run as a profitable business.

Walking around Highgate, you are struck by the symbolism associated with death. A grave was a Victorian Insta account, and clues adorn many of the monuments as to the achievements, and hubris, of those buried beneath. There are plenty that are common in all British and Christian cemeteries; a broken column indicating a young life cut short; a draped urn representing the veil between the living and the dead; three stones supporting a cross which are symbolic of the father, the son and holy ghost. The cross itself had been out of fashion for a few centuries but made a big comeback thanks to the Victorians. The grave of a world-famous champion bare-knuckle fighter features a carved dog, his faithful companion who was his chief mourner. Tom Sayers was a world-famous fighter and a working-class hero, and his funeral procession stretched from Highgate to Tottenham Court Road.

The tomb of George Wombwell is topped by a sleeping lion. In life, George was a celebrated zoo keeper, with his own private collection of exotic animals including, you’ve guessed it, a very tame lion called Nero.

The list of those laid to rest at Highgate is fascinating. Nearly two centuries of the notable, the rich and the inspirational are amongst the 170,000 who can be found there. George Michael, Bob Hoskins, Michael Faraday, Joseph Lister and Karl Marx are just a few. There is one relatively recent grave that particularly catches the eye, however, as you follow the main path into the West Side of the cemetery. That of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian defector who was poisoned by Putin’s regime in 2006. The grave is strikingly modern. It features a photo of Litvinenko, itself an exceptionally unusual feature at Highgate. Most of the West Side of the cemetery is being slowly worn away by the weather and swallowed by mature trees and spring flowers. The graves are shades of grey and often barely legible. Litvinenko’s grave is pinkish-red and was, by necessity, dug deeper than most. His lead coffin is buried twelve feet below visitors’ feet as a precaution, after his murder through the use of polonium-210. This radioactive substance admittedly has a half-life of less than five months, so is unlikely to cause any further mischief.

Highgate is also home to a particularly rare type of cave spider, which is monitored by London Zoo and can be found in the overgrown tunnel enveloped by trees that is the Grade I listed Egyptian Avenue. The locked crypts lining each side of the Avenue are not full, and if you can prove lineage to those already interred there you are guaranteed a spot. However, the eye-watering cost of spending your afterlife in Highgate might be a consideration. It is currently estimated that a pretty basic full-body plot costs between £25,000 - £30,000. A place in an Egyptian Avenue tomb in 1839 cost the modern-day equivalent of up to £150,000.

Beyond the Avenue is the beautiful Circle of Lebanon, lined with tombs, including that of the activist and writer, Radclyffe Hall. Atop the Circle stood a famed cedar tree, from which the Circle took its name. The 200-year old tree was recently lost to a fungus and in its place now grows a baby cedar, but the loss of the original tree is felt keenly by those working and volunteering at Highgate.

The Terrace Catacombs, which visitors are only able to enter whilst on the official tour of the West cemetery, speaks eerily and eloquently of the turbulent history of Highgate, and the general stupidity of people. Originally, each entrance to the Catacombs had been guarded, which reassured both the families of the dead and the particularly practical. Doctors, being more aware than most in the nineteenth century of the prevalence of grave robbing, were keen to be safely ensconced in the locked and guarded Catacombs after meeting their maker.  Coffins were lead-lined and placed on shelving. This practice left them exposed and vulnerable in the late 1960s. A sensationalist newspaper report of a ‘vampire’ roaming Highgate Cemetery led to the vandalism and destruction of much of the cemetery, including the desecration of the bodies laid to rest in the Catacombs. I will cover this more extensively in another blog, as it makes for very interesting reading. The damage took years to repair, coming as it did after several decades of cemetery-wide neglect after the Second World War. In fact, it was only addressed when The Friends of Highgate group was formed in 1975 to repair and protect the site.

For those of us who find beauty, comfort, and peace in a walk around a cemetery, there are few like Highgate. My interest in these places stems from my local cemetery in Chingford, London. Not considered one of the greats, it is notable perhaps only for its two most famous residents, the Kray twins. I clearly remember their funeral processions, one of which I watched from my junior school window, attended by an interesting if, by then, anonymous cohort of 60s gangsters, molls and actors, glamour faded after thirty years. Chingford Cemetery also features a pauper’s grave, a mound of earth with a few markers sticking out haphazardly. There are Commonwealth war graves and an overgrown area completely obscured by feral ivy and holly trees, where the stone markers are almost as buried as those they are intended to commemorate and completely illegible.

Cemeteries are havens for wildlife. From the ubiquitous grey squirrels of Chingford to the striking green parakeets that have spread from central London to inhabit most trees within the M25 over the last couple of decades, many of which have made Highgate their home. Perhaps it is simply the knowledge that cemeteries of this type are dying out if you’ll forgive the pun. As cremation becomes a more popular and cost-effective option, the marble tombs of our recent ancestors are icons of a lost age. Life and death are no longer celebrated in stone.

[ernestdescalsartwok]

LONDRES-ARTE-PINTURA-CEMENTERIO-HIGHGATE-PAISAJES-ARCO-ARBOLES-LUZ-MISTICA-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS por Ernest Descals Por Flickr: LONDRES-ARTE-PINTURA-CEMENTERIO-HIGHGATE-PAISAJES-ARCO-ARBOLES-LUZ-MISTICA-PINTOR-ERNEST DESCALS- El CEMENTERIO de HIGHGATE en la ciudad de LONDRES, uno de los siete cementerios más bellos con atmósfera mística de tiempos pasados, u arco une las dos edificaciones que permite el suave paso de la luz en os momentos en que empieza a aparecer el sol, ambiente dorado que consigue la unificación cromática de la pintura y trasmite profundidad. Paisajes londinenses con romanticismo y historia. Cuadros del artista pintor Ernest Descals sobre papel de 50 x 70 centímetros, buscando los lugares y los motivos que inspiran el Arte.

[officialhistoryandshit]

Emily had a bad reaction to a shot last Thursday, so we are doing The Highgate Vampire this week instead.

In the 1970s, Highgate Cemetery in London became the center of a media sensation as reports supernatural activities and murder abounded.

Participate in the live discussion Thursday night, August 11th, at 7:00 MT/8:00 CT on #instagram #youtube #facebook and #twitter

Catch edited episodes on #anchor #spotify and #googlepodcasts

#satanicpanic #creepy #scary #horror #paranormal #supernatural #vampire #vampires #highgate #highgatecemetery #highgatevampire #vampirehunter #vampirehunters #history #podcast #truecrimehistory #truecrime #truecrimepodcast #truecrimepodcasts

#podcasting #podcaster #podcastshow

[shuttergremlin]

Kino.

[a-mag-a-day]

The What the Ghost? episodes are so interesting because the Dancing Plague and the Highgate Vampire are REAL social phenomena that occured throughout history.

But since this is TMA, it's really fun to speculate which of the Fears were behind it! Here are my interpretations:

The Dancing Plague -- the Slaughter (w/ possible Corruption influence). I get very Grifter's Bone/Flesh Hive vibes....

Woman dancing to music only she could hear until she died, her feet torn and bloody. Her body continuing to move to the mysterious melody even in death.

Hundreds of thousands of people danced themselves to death or hurled themselves into the sea - a bloody, violent massacre!

100 children feverishly dancing all the way to Arnstadt.

The Pied Piper.... need I say more??

Ergotism is a poisoning caused by ingesting rye which has become contaminated with ergot fungus. Causes hallucinations and muscle spasms.

Highgate Cemetery -- the Hunt (Vampires)

Bonus Ads: Webly (the Web), Steakout (the Flesh), SparksFly (the Eye), Bedcetera (the Dark)

Hmmmm interesting!

[lycanlovingvampyre]

What the Ghost? - The Devil’s Dance & Highgate Cemetery

So I have heard The Devil's Dance before, never listened to the Highgate Cemetery though. So these are my very first thoughts on that one.

The Devil's Dance

"We’ll be peering into the murky depths of history this week, unraveling the story of a deadly plague that spread terror across Europe for centuries." I mean, the title Devil's Dance says it all, but after just this sentence I knew it was the Dancing Plague.

How many puns and silly sound effects can you cram into a podcast? XDDD

"Being up close and personal with the supernatural all day can really wreak havoc with your nerves at night! That’s why I need the best possible mattress to help me drift off to sleep. Luckily, I have my Bedcetera mattress so I can rest in peace!" Ah yes, mattress sponsors in podcasting...

"But one of the strangest cases occurred in 1237 in a town called Erfurt, Germany. Records from the time say that, for one day, a hundred children started feverishly dancing, moving as one all the way to Arnstadt, over twelve miles away, before all collapsing of exhaustion, their feverish movements stopped as suddenly as they started. Though the facts about the children of Erfurt are hidden in the depths of history, their story lives on in the fearsome tale of the Pied Piper." This is apparently a very famous folktale even internationally. Wikipedia calls it a legend? I don't think that term fits. It's called "Sage" in German, which derives from the verb "sagen" - to speak, to say, to tell. Or "Gesagtes" - something that has been said or told. Like... tale! Folktale. In German, a legend (it's literally just "Legende") is distinct from a Sage or Märchen (fairytale), but still close. The English "Saga" also wouldn't fit, that sounds way too epic and heroic. But the German "Sage" does also have its origins in the Old High German term "Saga". Dug a bit into legend. That term comes from the Medieval Latin "legenda" which means "that, which is to read", or "to be read". So a legend got primarily passed down in written form, and Sagen in verbal form, therefore changing ever so slightly over the years. There is no English Wikipedia page for Sagen, it's a very regional label. Boy, that escalated quickly...

"What The Ghost? listeners get a month’s membership for free! No need for a code; (voice climbing higher) they already know who you are! (still at a markedly higher register) SparksFly: Privacy is just another word for loneliness?!" That's the Eye, right? Or is it Web? It's on the Web... But secrets (*cough* search history *cough*) revealed is usually Eye. And, the Eye is the... Fly in the Web! (I know, it's called sparks flying when two people are obviously attracted to each other. But I also want in on the pun fun!) Also this is sponsor section is glorios xD

"Historians, police officers, and city planners who exhume the bodies find them looking mutilated or mutated. Reports describe skeletons with too many bones, limbs that are too long, and joints that bend in a way that the best doctors claim they should not." A bit of Flesh? (too many bones) Or a bit of the Spiral (long limbs). There's certainly something Spiral-y to it.

Highgate Cemetery

Looked for pictures of the Highgate Cemetery on Google. It's beautiful!

"And remember, that those tombs that do lock, always do so from the outside." Yeah, I mean who's supposed to lock it from the inside? A vampire???

Ah, the names were changed. I mean it is very recent history, so super understandable. David Farrant got changed into Daniel Tarrant. And the original Sean Manchester got changed into Shane Sheffield. Very clever!

While we're at the Highgate Trivia, check this out: "The Highgate Vampire appears as a villain in the Dark Horse comics series Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine. The Highgate Vampire is revealed to be, not a vampire, but an insectoid demon that feeds off its victims' emotional trauma." lol

"While Daniel claimed to have seen a tall man in a hat striding across the cemetery grounds" Oh god, I'm sitting alone in a wide open living room with big windows, it’s dark and my spouse already went to sleep... Okay... I am not my fear. The Hat Man is a very common image. People suffering from sleep paralysis might know about it or have actually seen it. I don't know why this certain hallucination is so wide-spread, and I don't wanna look it up right now, that shit gets me.

"Webly always knows what I want to do next. And the best part is, I never have to worry whether I can trust anything on the net because Webly tells me I can. Don't think, just webley.com! " Okay so this is very easy. Web.

"To get your first box for half price, just enter the code, MEATCUTE." Pffffffft, that after we just listened to Jon and Martin's meet-cute yesterday xD (also Flesh, of course. That is where Toby Carlisle from MAG 18 got his meat from!)

@a-mag-a-day

[sometimeslondon]

The tomb of Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery

London is full of the graves of the great and the good and indeed the not so great and good. Yet with all that choice, one of the most popular graves to visit is that of Karl Marx in the wonderful Highgate Cemetery.

[ninja-muse]

Hi! I'm the anon who asked about kind protagonists. Thanks for the recs! So far I have read Piranesi and Small Gods, and I liked them both (I knew I would like Small Gods because... Terry Pratchett, but Piranesi was new and lovely!) Anyway, I'm here for another rec ask - do you have any ghost or ghost-like stories that are romantic rather than scary? And by romantic I don't mean "with a romance", I mean... haunting in the sentimental sense, haha. Thank you!

Oh, I'm so glad you're enjoying my recs so far! And yes, I have more recs for you. Hopefully they'll hit the mark as well as the last batch. :)

Poems Bewitched and Haunted is part of the Everyman's Pocket Poetry series and is probably my favourite of the ones I've read. It's full of beautifully spooky and haunting poems and I should really reread it.

Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire is an incredible ode to Americana and ghost lore. The Hitchhiking Ghost was killed by the Phantom Car and is now travelling America to avoid the Car's driver and helping other ghosts along the way. It started as serial short stories so every chapter's very much its own thing within the story arc, and it was very much a book I sank into. It has sequels, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown and Angel of the Overpass, which are probably just as good because McGuire's excellent, but I haven't read them yet.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is a middle grade about a boy who's raised by ghosts and the undead in a graveyard and was inspired by The Jungle Book. It's about family and belonging and facing your fears, and the inhabitants of the graveyard are wonderfully portrayed.

Ghosts by Gaslight, edited by Jack Dann, came up when I searched my "read books" list for ghosts. I would've read it a decade ago so my memory is fuzzy, but I know it was a solid anthology so it should give you a good mix—scary, haunting, beautiful, offbeat.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger never got the buzz The Time Traveller's Wife did, but if you're looking for over-dramatic teenagers and toxic relationships and other literary-type drama, but set in a haunted flat next to Highgate Cemetery, look no further. It's too full of unlikable people for me to have properly liked it, but it definitely has that heightened-emotions-a-la-Gothic-novel flair and I found a lot of it unsettling.

Gallant is V.E. Schwab's most recent novel. It's about a girl who can see ghosts and who's grown up in an orphanage, and then she gets a letter from her birth family inviting her home to their Gothic mansion. The one that may or may not border another world. It's about courage and determination and making your own family, it's darkly beautiful and immersive, and it has that middle-grade/fable sensibility while being written for an older audience.

On my TBR:

Echoes, edited by Ellen Datlow (1000 pages of ghost stories by the best writers in SFF)

The Haunting Season, edited by Sara Collins (nine wintery ghost stories)

Ghostland by Colin Dickey (a history examining America through ghost stories)

Honorable mentions to:

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (two boys vs. evil carnival, really about boyhood and growing up and related fears)

Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings (gothic Australian fairy tale, distinctly unsettling)

[nazboh]

New site: Hampstead Heath, down from Highgate cemetery, next to Parliament Hill. Open grass field area with trees around and moderate incline.

The “Stone of Free Speech” found nearby is my inspiration for site. Symbolise a power and influence of communication and has mystic history.

The idea is to track the influence (suppression) from other buildings nearby, that emits importance for local communication, exchange or education which I mapped in first sketch to visualise the idea. Mapping of influence visualised as its wave which interacts with other waves and creates interference pattern stretched on land from influence points. Each influence force has its flavour, but all was sorted in two division (artistic and educational) which represents a common properties of each one.

Second sketch is about visualising transition of one division to another (from artistic to educational) creating a point clouds of influence distribution according to its force intensity (from low to high) and then combining the transitional layers into axo drawing.

[cant-be-thamed]

Weekend of July 15-17

This weekend, my flatmates and I decided to buckle down and bear the AC-less heat of the following week. Friday after the London Dungeon, Morgan, Caroline, Lauren and I all decided to do the London Eye, just for tourism sake. It was so so beautiful, just to be able to see the entire city was a really sweet culmination of the past two weeks. Friday night, we decided to go out on the town. It was my first night going out at all, and my first night heavy drinking in a longggg time, and I definitely had too much fun. Much to my dismay, apparently Long Island Iced Teas are NOT alcoholic Arnold Palmers … and they are DELICIOUS! I downed one too many, but it was an incredibly fun night.

Saturday I woke up feeling like death. We had to bust butt to Highgate Cemetery for our walking tour, and it was very interesting, but I was violently hungover and overheating as mess. We learned so much about the history of the cemetery as well as the people who are buried there and their legacies. I was really glad we did it! We also were able to snap some photos of natural/unnatural spaces, as well as ghoul gates and pick up on some ghost stories. I spent the rest of Saturday resting and took my first nap of the trip! 3 hours at that, but I sadly woke up feeling more sluggish, so I continued the day resting and catching up on daybook posts.

Sunday - woke up feeling arguably even worse sadly. But was determined to not let the day get the best of me! After a late start, I was able to see Mad House with David Harbour and Bill Pullman at the Ambassadors Theatre, and I believe it was the best play I may have ever seen in my life. Often times, we see movies that make us feel as though we are truly witnessing reality - but that phenomena is very rare and hard to come by in stage shows. This was the first play I’ve seen where I truly felt like I was watching a real occurrence play out before me. And it wasn’t just the celebrity actors that were amazing, the entire cast was absolutely stellar. It did make me giggle when the British actors would have to “find” their American/Philly accents every time they would come onstage (apparently Irish/Scottish is very similar, as that seemed to be the default, unless the actors themselves were Irish or Scottish…😜).

This morning I woke up somehow feeling even sicker! Yet still negative for covid. I chock it up to a three day old hangover, heat exhaustion, and lack of sleep/necessary nutrients (all I’ve eaten for three weeks is sandwiches and an abundance of carbs). However, my sweet little boyfriend ordered flowers online for me to pickup, and they were just lovely. It was a wonderful start to the week. I am really looking forward to wrapping up the trip, exploring London a few last couple times, and watching the temperature steadily drop again!

[lorinlondon]

Reflection 7: Reflections on Reflections

Hmm, five to eight learning moments I’ve had that I’ve already written about? That seems a bit repetitive, especially when I’ve already written about some of these ideas several times already (ie: the Tube, monsters, the unnatural vs. the natural). However, I will attempt to come up with some new thoughts based on my current travels.

1. London’s iconic, yet not so terrific, red bus: I definitely romanticized that red bus I wrote about in my first post. That bus is in no way a romantic idea. It may look pretty in pictures, especially against the backdrop of Big Ben or the Tower of London Bridge, but it’s a freaking monster. It’s hot, it’s scary (in the sense that it might strike you down on the street), and it does NOT get you to your needed location in a timely manner unless you are riding it early in the morning or late at night, when the traffic is light.

2. The Tube–what a wondrous and monstrous invention: I never knew that London even had a Tube station or an Underground until reading Neverwhere and then coming to London. And I’m impressed by how complex and efficient this system is, not to mention all the people moving around this system at any given moment. This monstrous train may be scary, but it’s also beautiful, and necessary. The Underground keeps London running, literally.

3. Maybe I am ok with being spoiled in America, even if it’s at the cost of the environment. Ok, when I first arrived, I thought about how great this city was, with its environmentally-friendly electric cars, its wooden take-away utensils, its for-pay take-away bags in every story to encourage shoppers to use their own. But I’m beginning to miss our American luxuries, especially air conditioning. I realize much of our country’s amenities are ruining the environment for our future, but I do love the convenience of AC, of a guaranteed free bag at the grocery store, of a plastic straw that doesn’t melt halfway through my drink, of getting in my car and going. And ice; I miss ice in my water and other drinks.

4. London accepts everyone, from the monstrous to the beauteous, with no judgment, and the two are interchangeable.: If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching people on the streets, the buses, the Tube, it’s that this city has no specific standard when it comes to beauty or fashion. Anything goes. The only real commonality is footwear, and that appears to be comfort, as this is a walking city. But people are comfortable being themselves, wearing their own style, breaking out into song on the Tube, or dancing after a show. Maybe I’m out of touch with current social media trends, and fashion is following those trends. However, from my perspective, these individuals seem unique.

5. History is everywhere.: This isn’t so much a new revelation as much as just a continual recognition of how much history exists in this country and in this city. Just a visit to Canterbury Cathedral, the British Museum, the British Library, or the Tower of London reveals artifacts from past centuries. Highgate Cemetery houses the tombs of so many who lived here, including the dissenters and those with no actual stones, like the Lost Girls of Highgate. Putting the names of these historical figures and places with actual locations and items is an English or history teacher’s dream. We actually stood in a replica of the Globe Theater. That was a dream finally realized.

6. The Food is worthy.: I thought London’s food would be bland, perhaps based on stories. And honestly, the actual cuisine of London might not be the best. But we’ve primarily eaten cuisine of other cultures: Thai, Indian, Italian, Korean, Lebanese. These other cuisines exist side by side on every street and in every market; the smells are intoxicating. The food is certainly not something to complain about. And our fish and chips experience, in a touristy area near the British Museum but also in an Asian-inspired restaurant, was phenomenal.

7. The Theater scene is part of London’s culture.: I certainly wouldn’t have thought of London as a city of theater before, aside from Shakespeare’s Globe. But I’m also not a theater buff, aside from the occasional musical. This trip has shown me otherwise. With the playbill advertisements lining the Tube walls, the theaters in every district, and the constant attention to theater shown in our class discussions, I now see just how important theater is to this city.

[officialhistoryandshit]

In the 1970s, Highgate Cemetery in London became the center of a media sensation as reports supernatural activities and murder abounded. Participate in the live discussion tonight, August 11th, at 7:00 MT/8:00 CT on #instagram #youtube #facebook and #twitter Catch edited episodes on #anchor #spotify and #googlepodcasts #satanicpanic #creepy #scary #horror #paranormal #supernatural #vampire #vampires #highgate #highgatecemetery #highgatevampire #vampirehunter #vampirehunters #history #podcast #truecrimehistory #truecrime #truecrimepodcast #truecrimepodcasts #podcasting #podcaster #podcastshow https://www.instagram.com/p/ChINs5Ru8aj/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=