Highgate Cemetery and the catacombs tour.

Intro music courtesy of Jory Nash www.jorynash.com
Perhaps one of our more unusual historical destinations, Highgate Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in Highgate, London.

The cemetery in its original form (the older, Western part) was consecrated by the Bishop of London on 20th May 1839. It was part of an initiative to provide seven large, modern cemeteries to ring the city of London. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards of individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a health hazard and an undignified way to treat the dead.

The first inhumation at Highgate Cemetery took place on the 26th May, and was of Elizabeth Jackson, a 36 year old spinster of Golden Square in Soho.

Perched on a hill above the smoke and filth of the city, Highgate Cemetery soon became a fashionable place for burials and was much admired and visited. The Victorian romantic attitude to death and its presentation led to the creation of a labyrinth of Egyptian sepulchres and a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings. The rows of silent stone angels have born witness to pomp and ceremony as well as to some dreadful exhumations

In 1854 the eastern part of the cemetery was opened, across Swains Lane.
These avenues of death entomb poets, painters, princes and paupers. There at least 850 notable people buried at Highgate including 18 Royal Academicians, 6 Lord Mayors of London and 48 Fellows of the Royal Society. Although perhaps its most famous occupant is Karl Marx, several other people worthy of mention are also buried here

Today the cemetery’s grounds are full of mature trees, shrubbery and wildflowers that provide a haven for birds and small animals. The Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon (topped by a huge Cedar of Lebanon) feature tombs, vaults and winding paths through the hillside. For its protection, the oldest section, with its impressive collection of Victorian mausoleums and gravestones plus elaborately carved tombs, allows admission only in tour groups. The newer section, which contains most of the angel statuary, can be toured unescorted.

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