| Highgate Cemetery | |
|---|---|
Highgate Cemetery (East) (c. 2010) | |
![]() Interactive map of Highgate Cemetery | |
| Details | |
| Established | 1839 |
| Location | Swain's Lane, London, N6 6PJ |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 51°34′01″N 0°08′49″W / 51.567°N 0.147°W |
| Owned by | Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust |
| Size | 15 hectares (37 acres) |
| No. of graves | 53,000+ |
| No. of interments | 170,000 |
| Website | www |
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.
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.

The cemetery in its original form – the northwestern wooded area – opened 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. 15 acres (6.1 ha) 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[clarification needed] 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.
| Highgate Cemetery Act 2022 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| Long title | An Act to confer powers upon the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust to operate, maintain and conserve Highgate Cemetery and to extinguish rights of burial and disturb human remains in Highgate Cemetery for the purpose of increasing the space for interments and the conservation of Highgate Cemetery; and for connected purposes. |
| Citation | 2022 c. i |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 24 March 2022 |
Status: Current legislation | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Text of the Highgate Cemetery Act 2022 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. | |
The cemetery's grounds are full of trees, shrubbery and wildflowers, most of which have been planted and grown without human influence.[citation needed][clarification needed] 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 Highgate Cemetery Act 2022 (c. i).


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.



Many famous or prominent people are buried on this side of Highgate cemetery; the most famous of which is perhaps that of Karl Marx, whose tomb was the site of attempted bombings on 2 September 1965 and in 1970. The tomb of Karl Marx is also a Grade I listed building for reasons of historical importance. Fireman's corner is a monument erected in the East side by widows and orphans of members of the London Fire Brigade in 1934. There are 97 firemen buried here. The monument is cared for by the Brigade's Welfare Section.
The cemetery contains the graves of 318 Commonwealth service personnel maintained and registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, in both the East and West sides, 259 from the First World War and 59 from the Second. Those whose graves could not be marked by headstones are listed on a Screen Wall memorial erected near the Cross of Sacrifice in the west side.
Highgate Cemetery was featured in the popular media from the 1960s to the late 1980s for its so-called occult past, particularly as being the alleged site of the "Highgate Vampire".
Why the city should revive a 19th-century plan for an uptown necropolis, population 5 million.
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Media related to Highgate Cemetery at Wikimedia Commons