The delightfully Gothic, Victorian-era Highgate Cemetery in north London is the final resting place for a long list of famous names, including Karl Marx, George Michael, and Douglas Adams. For the first time in decades, all parts of the burial grounds will be open to free-roaming visitors – no tour required.
A narrow road divides Highgate Cemetery into two parts: the West Cemetery is the original plot opened in 1839, while the East Cemetery was built as an extension in 1860. Although the East Cemetery – open for visitors without a tour – is where you can find many famous names, it’s arguably the West Cemetery that’s more historically and architecturally fascinating.
Typically, access to the West Cemetery is permitted through guided tours only. However, as an experiment, the cemetery is opening this weekend without tour requirements. The West Cemetery features thousands of ivy-choked gravestones adorned with Victorian funerary motifs, such as broken columns, sleeping figures, and urns draped in fabric. One of the most striking features is the Egyptian Avenue, a darkened pathway of mausoleums flanked at the entrance by imposing columns and obelisks. Nearby lies the Circle of Lebanon, named for an ancient cedar tree that predated Highgate Cemetery, encircled by ornamented mausoleums covering the tree’s roots. In total, over 170,000 individuals are interred in 53,000 graves across the cemetery’s 15 hectares.
Highgate Cemetery was established as one of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’. This initiative emerged from an Act of Parliament designed to relocate burials from central churchyards to rural areas, which have since become engulfed by London’s expanding boundaries. Consequently, Highgate rapidly became one of the capital’s most fashionable burial sites during the 19th century, leading to an era of elaborate gravestones and mausoleums.
The West Cemetery opening trial is set for this weekend, 11 July and 12 July, and additional dates may be announced based on its success. Online booking in advance is essential as tickets will not be available for purchase at the cemetery to minimize contact during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
