Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there either in coffins or urns as well as for its de facto status as a nature reserve. The Cemetery is designated Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Location The cemetery is in Highgate N6, next to Waterlow Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It comprises two sides, on either side of Swain's Lane. The main gate is on Swain's Lane, just north of Oakshott Avenue. There is another, disused, gate on Chester Road. The nearest public transport (Transport for London) is the C11 bus, Brookfield Park stop, and Archway tube station.
History and setting
The cemetery in its original formthe northwestern wooded areaopened in 1839 by the London Cemetery Company, 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. The London Cemetery Company was incorporated by the London Cemetery Company Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. cxxxvi).
On 20 May 1839, Highgate (West) Cemetery was dedicated to St James by the Right Reverend Charles James Blomfield, Lord Bishop of London. were consecrated for the use of the Church of England, and two acres were set aside for dissenters. Rights of burial were sold either for a 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 Highgate hill, next to Waterlow Park. In 1854 a further 19 acres (8 ha) to the south east of the original area, across Swain's Lane, were bought to form the eastern extension; this opened in 1860. Both sides of the cemetery are still used today for burials.
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 mammals, such as foxes. The London Cemetery Company became bankrupt in 1960, and was absorbed by the United Cemetery Company. The cemetery is now owned and maintained by a charitable trust, the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, which was set up in 1975 and acquired the freehold of both East and West sides by 1981. In 1984 it published Highgate Cemetery: Victorian Valhalla by John Gay. The trust was given updated powers to manage the cemetery and extinguish rights of burial by the (c. i).
Graves West Side
The Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon (previously surmounted by a huge, 280-year-old Cedar of Lebanon, which had to be cut down and replaced in August 2019) are both Grade I listed buildings. The west side of the Cemetery is characterised by elaborate feature tombs, vaults and winding paths dug into hillsides. At the highest point, the Terrace Catacombs and the Julius Beer Mausoleum are both Grade II* listed. In 1967 the Dissenter's Catacombs were declared unsafe and demolished. Three houses were subsequently built on the site. The Grey House, built in 2008, is visible from the West Side of the cemetery on Faraday Path.
Notable West Side interments Henry Alken (1785–1851), painter, engraver and illustrator of sporting and coaching scenes Jane Arden, Welsh-born film director, actress, screenwriter, playwright, songwriter, and poet John Atcheler, 'Horse slaughterer to Queen Victoria' Edward Hodges Baily, sculptor Beryl Bainbridge, author Abraham Dee Bartlett, zoologist, superintendent of the London Zoo known for selling the popular African elephant Jumbo to P. T. Barnum
Julius Beer (and family members), owner of The Observer. Francis Bedford, landscape photographer William Belt, barrister and antiquarian, best known for his eccentric behaviour Mary Matilda Betham, diarist, poet, woman of letters, and miniature portrait painter Eugenius Birch, seaside architect and noted designer of promenade-piers Edward Blore, architect known for his work on Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey Edwin Brett, publisher and pioneer of serialised sensational weekly fiction and 'penny dreadfuls' Jacob Bronowski (ashes), scientist, creator of the television series The Ascent of Man James Bunstone Bunning, City Architect to the City of London Robert William Buss, artist and illustrator Edward Dundas Butler, translator and senior librarian at the Department of Printed Books, British Museum Edward Cardwell, 1st Viscount Cardwell, prominent politician in the Peelite and Liberal parties, best remembered for his tenure as Secretary of State for War William Benjamin Carpenter, physician, invertebrate zoologist and physiologist Joseph William Comyns Carr, drama and art critic, gallery director, author, poet, playwright and theatre manager John James Chalon, Swiss painter Robert Caesar Childers, scholar of the Orient and writer Edmund Chipp, organist and composer Charles Chubb, lock and safe manufacturer Antoine Claudet, pioneering early photographer, honoured by Queen Victoria as "Photographer-in-ordinary" John Cross, English artist Philip Conisbee, art historian and curator Abraham Cooper, animal and battle painter Thomas Frederick Cooper, watchmaker John Singleton Copley, Lord Chancellor and son of the American painter John Singleton Copley Sir Charles Cowper, Premier of New South Wales, Australia Addison Cresswell, comedians' agent and producer George Baden Crawley, civil engineer and railway builder Charles Cruft, founder of Crufts dog show Isaac Robert Cruikshank, caricaturist, illustrator, portrait miniaturist and brother of George Cruikshank George Dalziel, engraver who with his siblings ran one of the most prolific Victorian engraving firms George Darnell, schoolmaster and author of Darnell's Copybooks David Devant, theatrical magician Alfred Lamert Dickens, the younger brother of Charles Dickens Catherine Dickens, wife of Charles Dickens John and Elizabeth Dickens, parents of Charles Dickens Fanny Dickens, elder sister of Charles Dickens William Hepworth Dixon, historian and traveller. Also active in organizing London's Great Exhibition of 1851 The Druce family vault, one of whose members was (falsely) alleged to have been the 5th Duke of Portland. Herbert Benjamin Edwardes, Administrator and soldier, known as the "Hero of Multan" Joseph Edwards, Welsh sculptor Thomas Edwards, (Caerfallwch), Welsh author and lexicographer Ugo Ehiogu, footballer James Harington Evans, Baptist pastor of the John Street Chapel Benjamin Hawes, 19th-century British Whig politician, known in UK parliament as "Hawes the Soap-Boiler" Michael Faraday, chemist and physicist (with his wife Sarah), in the Dissenters section Sir Charles Fellows, archaeologist and explorer, known for his numerous expeditions in what is present-day Turkey. Charles Drury Edward Fortnum, art collector and benefactor of the Ashmolean Museum Lucian Freud, painter, grandson of Sigmund Freud, and elder brother of Clement Freud John Galsworthy, author and Nobel Prize winner (cenotaph, he was cremated and his ashes scattered) Stephen Geary, architect of Highgate Cemetery John Gibbons, ironmaster and art patron Stella Gibbons, novelist, author of Cold Comfort Farm Margaret Gillies, Scottish painter known for her miniature portraits, including of one of Charles Dickens John William Griffith, architect of Kensal Green Cemetery Henry Gray, anatomist and surgeon,GRO Register of Deaths: JUN qtr 1861 1a 174 St Geo Han Sq – Henry Gray author of Gray's Anatomy. Radclyffe Hall, author of The Well of Loneliness and other novels William Hall, founder with Edward Chapman of publishers Chapman & Hall William Dobinson Halliburton, physiologist, noted for being one of the founders of the science of biochemistry Philip Harben, English cook regarded as the first TV celebrity chef Sir Charles Augustus Hartley, eminent British civil engineer, known as 'the father of the Danube.' George Edwards Hering, landscape painter Edwin Hill, older brother of Rowland Hill and inventor of the first letter scale and a mechanical system to make envelopes Frank Holl, Royal portraitist Ian Holm, English actor James Holman, 19th-century adventurer known as "the Blind Traveller" Surgeon-General Sir Anthony Home, Victoria Cross recipient from Indian Mutiny Theodore Hope, British colonial administrator and writer Thomas Hopley, headmaster who beat one of his pupils to death William Hosking, first Professor of Architecture at King's College London and architect of Abney Park Cemetery Bob Hoskins, actor Georgiana Houghton, British artist and spiritualist medium David Edward Hughes, FRS, 19th-century electrical engineer and inventor William Henry Hunt, popular and widely collected painter of watercolours, nicknamed 'Bird's Nest' Hunt Sir John Hutton, publisher of Sporting Life and Chairman of the London County Council Georges Jacobi, composer, conductor and musical director of the Alhambra Theatre Lisa Jardine (ashes), historian Victor Kullberg, one of the greatest marine clockmakers Thomas Landseer, younger brother of Sir Edwin Landseer (there is a cenotaph, Edwin was buried in St Paul's Cathedral) Sir Peter Laurie, politician and Lord Mayor of London Douglas Lapraik, shipowner and co-founder of HSBC and the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Group Henry Lee, surgeon, pathologist and syphilologist Oswald Lewis, MP and younger son of John Lewis, founder of the chain of department stores Robert Liston, surgeon Alexander Litvinenko, Russian dissident, murdered by poisoning in London Edward Lloyd, influential newspaper publisher and founder of the Daily Chronicle James Locke, a London draper credited with giving Tweed its name William Lovett, Chartist Samuel Lucas, editor of the Morning Star, journalist and abolitionist Archibald Maclaine (British Army officer) John Maple, founder of the furniture makers Maple & Co. Hugh Mackay Matheson, industrialist and founder of Matheson & Company and the Rio Tinto Group Frederick Denison Maurice, English Anglican theologian, prolific author and one of the founders of Christian socialism Michael Meacher, academic and Labour Party politician George Michael, singer, songwriter, music producer and philanthropist; buried beside his mother and sister. Barbara Mills, (ashes) first female Director of Public Prosecutions Frederick Akbar Mahomed, internationally known British physician Jude Moraes, landscape gardener, writer and broadcaster Nicholas Mosley, novelist and biographer of his father, Oswald Mosley Edward Moxhay, shoemaker, biscuit maker and property speculator, best known for his involvement in the landmark English land law case Tulk v Moxhay Elizabeth de Munck, mother of celebrated soprano, Maria Caterina Rosalbina Caradori-Allan in grave with large carving of pelican in piety General Sir Archibald James Murray, Chief of Staff to the WW1 British Expeditionary Force Walter Neurath, Publisher and founder of Thames and Hudson Henry Newton, painter and co-founder of Winsor & Newton Samuel Noble, English engraver, and minister of the New Church Feliks Nowosielski, Polish nobleman George Osbaldeston, known as Squire Osbaldeston, sportsman, gambler and Member of Parliament Sherard Osborn, Royal Navy admiral and Arctic explorer