Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
dramatic sloping site, to the west, is an amalgamation of several house gardens, and
is one of London's finest landscaped parks, providing a through route to Highgate
Cemetery. Not far from the park, down Highgate Hill, you'll find the
Whittington
Stone
, with cat, marking the spot where Dick Whittington miraculously heard the
Bow Bells chime (see p.164).
Highgate Cemetery
Swain's Lane
East Cemetery
April-Oct Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 11am-5pm; Nov-March closes 4pm • £4 • Guided tour Sat 2pm;
£8
West Cemetery
Guided tours March-Nov Mon-Fri 1.45pm, Sat & Sun hourly 11am-4pm; Dec-Feb Sat & Sun hourly 11am-3pm;
£12; No under-8s •
T
020 8340 1834,
W
highgatecemetery.org •
!
Archway
Ranged on both sides of Swain's Lane and receiving far more visitors than Highgate
itself,
Highgate Cemetery
is London's most famous graveyard. Opened in 1839, it
quickly became the preferred resting place of wealthy Victorian families, who could rub
shoulders with numerous intellectuals and artists. As long as prime plots were available,
business was good and as many as 28 gardeners were employed to beautify the place.
But as the plots filled, funds dried up and the place fell prey to
vandalism
. he
cemetery, which had provided inspiration for Bram Stoker's
Dracula
, found itself at the
centre of a series of bizarre incidents in the early 1970s. Graves were smashed open,
cadavers strewn about, and the High Priest of the British Occult Society, Allan Farrant,
was arrested, armed with a stake and crucifix with which he hoped to destroy “the
Highgate Vampire”. He was eventually sentenced to four years' imprisonment, after
being found guilty of damaging graves, interfering with corpses and sending death-spell
dolls to two policemen.
In 1975, the old (west) cemetery was closed completely and was taken under the
wing of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery. Nowadays, you have to take a guided tour
to visit the West Cemetery, though you can still wander freely in the less dramatic east
cemetery - both sections have entrance charges.
20
West Cemetery
The old, overgrown
West Cemetery
is the ultimate Hammer-horror graveyard, and one
of London's most impressive sights. It may not have a celebrity corpse to compete with
Karl Marx (in the East Cemetery), but wins hands down when it comes to atmosphere,
with its huge vaults and eerie statuary. The most famous names here are Chubb (of the
locks), Cruft (of the Dog Show) and scientist Michael Faraday, who, as a member of
the Sandemanian sect, is buried along the unconsecrated north wall.
All tours are different, but you're quite likely to be shown the lion that snoozes above
the tomb of menagerist George Wombwell, and the faithful dog (confusingly called
Lion) that lies on bare-knuckle fighter Thomas Sayers' grave. Another popular sight is
the
Rossetti family tomb
, resting place of Elizabeth Siddall, Pre-Raphaelite model and
wife of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who buried the only copy of his love poems along with
her. Seven years later he changed his mind and had the poems exhumed and published.
The poet Christina Rossetti, Dante's sister, is also buried in the vault.
The cemetery's spookiest section is around
Egyptian Avenue
, entered through an
archway flanked by Egyptian half-pillars, known as the “Gateway to the City of the
Dead”. The avenue slopes gently upwards to the Circle of Lebanon, at the centre of
which rises a giant cedar. The circular Egyptian-style sunken catacombs here include the
tomb of the lesbian novelist Radclyffe Hall (her lover, Mabel Batten, is also buried here).
Above are the
Terrace Catacombs
,
and
the cemetery's most ostentatious mausoleums,
some of which hold up to fifteen co
ns; the largest - based on the tomb of Mausolus at
Halicarnassus - is that of Julius Beer, one-time owner of the
Observer
newspaper.
East Cemetery
What the
East Cemetery
lacks in atmosphere, it makes up for by the fact that you can
wander at will through its maze of circuitous paths. The most publicized occupant is
