Place of burial in north London, England
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London , England, designed by architect Stephen Geary .[1] [2] de facto status as a nature reserve . The Cemetery is designated Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens .[3]
Location
The cemetery is in Highgate N6 , next to Waterlow Park , in the London Borough of Camden . It comprises two sites, on either side of Swains Lane. The main gate is on Swains 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
Tombs near the Circle of Lebanon crypts at the West Cemetery, Highgate, London. The cemetery in its original form – the northwestern wooded area – opened in 1839, 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 .
On Monday 20 May 1839, Highgate (West) Cemetery was dedicated to St. James [4] Charles James Blomfield , Lord Bishop of London . Fifteen acres (6 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 Swains Lane, was bought to form the eastern part of the cemetery; 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.[clarification needed The grounds are a haven for birds and small animals such as foxes. 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 Cemeteries by 1981. In 1984 it published Highgate Cemetery: Victorian Valhalla by John Gay .[5]
Graves
West Cemetery
Entrance to the Egyptian Avenue, West Cemetery Circle of Lebanon, West Cemetery The Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon (previously surmounted by a huge, 280 years 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 Tomb of Julius Beer are both Grade II* listed.
Notable West Cemetery interments
Henry Alken (1785 -1851), painter, engraver and illustrator of sporting and coaching scenesJane Arden , Welsh-born film director, actress, screenwriter, playwright, songwriter, and poetJohn Atcheler , 'Horse slaughterer to Queen Victoria 'Edward Hodges Baily , sculptorBeryl Bainbridge , authorAbraham 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 photographerWilliam Belt , barrister and antiquarian, best known for his eccentric behaviourMary Matilda Betham , diarist, poet, woman of letters, and miniature portrait painterEugenius Birch , seaside architect and noted designer of promenade-piersEdward 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 , 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 illustratorEdward 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 physiologistJoseph William Comyns Carr , drama and art critic, gallery director, author, poet, playwright and theatre managerJohn James Chalon , Swiss painterRobert Caesar Childers , scholar of the Orient and writerEdmund Chipp , organist and composerCharles Chubb , lock and safe manufacturerAntoine Claudet , pioneering early photographer, honoured by Queen Victoria as "Photographer-in-ordinary"John Cross , English artistPhilip Conisbee , art historian and curatorAbraham Cooper , animal and battle painterThomas Frederick Cooper , watchmakerJohn Singleton Copley , Lord Chancellor and son of the American painter John Singleton Copley Sir Charles Cowper , Premier of New South Wales , AustraliaAddison Cresswell , comedians' agent and producerGeorge Baden Crawley , civil engineer and railway builderCharles Cruft , founder of Crufts dog showIsaac 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 firmsGeorge Darnell , schoolmaster and author of Darnell's Copybooks David Devant , theatrical magicianAlfred 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 1851The 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 (sculptor) , Welsh sculptorThomas Edwards (author) , (Caerfallwch), Welsh author and lexicographerUgo Ehiogu , footballerJames Harington Evans , Baptist pastor of the John Street ChapelBenjamin 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 sectionSir 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 (most notably of Highgate Cemetery)John Gibbons , ironmaster and art patronStella 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,[6] [7] Gray's Anatomy Radclyffe Hall , author of The Well of Loneliness 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 painterEdwin Hill , older brother of Rowland Hill and inventor of the first letter scale and a mechanical system to make envelopesFrank Holl , Royal portraitistIan Holm , English ActorJames 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 writerThomas Hopley , headmaster who beat one of his pupils to deathWilliam Hosking , first Professor of Architecture at King's College London and architect of Abney Park Cemetery Bob Hoskins , actorGeorgiana Houghton , British artist and spiritualist medium David Edward Hughes , FRS, 19th-century electrical engineer and inventorWilliam Henry Hunt , popular and widely collected painter of watercolours, nicknamed 'Bird's Nest' HuntSir John Hutton , publisher of Sporting Life London County Council Georges Jacobi , composer, conductor and musical director of the Alhambra Theatre Lisa Jardine , historianVictor Kullberg , one of the greatest marine clockmakersThomas 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 , surgeonAlexander Litvinenko , Russian dissident, murdered by poisoning in LondonEdward Lloyd , influential newspaper publisher and founder of the Daily Chronicle James Locke , a London draper credited with giving Tweed its nameWilliam Lovett , Chartist Samuel Lucas , editor of the Morning Star 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 politicianGeorge Michael , singer, songwriter, music producer and philanthropist; buried beside his mother and sister.[citation needed Barbara Mills , (ashes) first female Director of Public ProsecutionsFrederick Akbar Mahomed , internationally known British physicianJude Moraes , landscape gardener, writer and broadcasterNicholas 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 noblemanGeorge Osbaldeston , known as Squire Osbaldeston, sportsman, gambler and Member of Parliament (MP)Sherard Osborn , Royal Navy admiral and Arctic explorerFrederick William Pavy , physician and physiologist William Payne , actor, dancer and pantomimist Thomas Ashburton Picken , watercolourist , engraver and lithographer Frances Polidori Rossetti , mother of Dante Gabriel , Christina and William Michael RossettiSamuel Phelps , Shakespearian actor and manager of Sadler's Wells Theatre Owen Roberts (educator) , pioneer of technical education, great-grandfather of Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon , husband of Princess Margaret .James Robinson , dentist, first person to carry out general anaesthesia in BritainSir John Richard Robinson , journalist, editor and manager of the Daily News Peter Robinson, founder of the Peter Robinson department store at Oxford Circus, London
Sir William Charles Ross , portrait and portrait miniature painterChristina Rossetti , poetGabriele Rossetti , Italian nationalist and scholar. Father of Christina and Dante Gabriel RossettiWilliam Michael Rossetti , co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Tom Sayers , pugilist , his tomb is guarded by the stone image of his mastiff, Lion, who was chief mourner at his funeralHenry Young Darracott Scott , responsible for the design and construction of the Royal Albert Hall Sir Peter Shepheard , architect and landscape architect , President of the RIBA , Architectural Association , Landscape Institute and the Royal Fine Art Commission Elizabeth Siddal , wife and model of artist/poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and model for the painting Ophelia John Everett Millais Jean Simmons , actressWilliam Simpson , war artist and correspondentSir John Smale , Chief Justice of Hong KongTom Smith , inventor of the Christmas cracker Charles Green Spencer , pioneer aviator and balloon manufacturerAlfred Stevens , sculptor, painter and designerWalter Fryer Stocks , prolific landscape painterSir Henry Knight Storks , soldier, MP, and colonial administratorAnna Swanwick , author and feminist who assisted in the founding of Girton College, Cambridge , and Somerville Hall , OxfordAlfred Swaine Taylor , toxicologist, forensic scientist, expert witnessFrederick Tennyson , poet, older brother of Alfred, Lord Tennyson Samuel Sanders Teulon , prolific Gothic Revival architectJeanette Threlfall , hymnwriter and poetCharles Turner , mezzotint engraver who collaborated with J. M. W. Turner Andrew Ure , Scottish physician known for his galvanism experimentation, founder of the University of Strathclyde John Vandenhoff , leading Victorian actorHenry Vaughan , art collector who gave one of Britain's most popular paintings, John Constable 's The Hay Wain National Gallery Emilie Ashurst Venturi , writer, translator and women's rights campaignerArthur Waley , translator and scholar of the OrientGeorge Wallis , First Keeper of the Fine Art Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum Mary Warner , actress and theatre managerAugusta Webster , poet, dramatist, essayist, translator and advocate of women's suffrage Henry White , lawyer and gifted landscape photographer Brodie McGhie Willcox , founder of the P&O Shipping Line Henry Willis , foremost organ builder of the Victorian eraHugh Wilson , RAF test pilotGeorge Wombwell , menagerie exhibitorEllen Wood , author known as Mrs Henry Wood, there is also a plaque for her in Worcester Cathedral Adam Worth , criminal mastermind. Possible inspiration for Sherlock Holmes 's nemesis, Professor Moriarty ; originally buried in a pauper's grave under the name Henry J. RaymondSir William Henry Wyatt , long-serving chairman of the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum at Colney Hatch, SouthgatePatrick Wymark , actorArthur Wynn , British civil servant who ran a spy ring for the KGB Joseph Warren Zambra , scientific instrument maker
East Cemetery
Tomb of Karl Marx , East CemeteryHighgate Cemetery East (2010) The grave of Caroline Tucker, Highgate Cemetery East Highgate Cemetery East (2023) Many famous or prominent people are buried on this side of Highgate cemetery; the most famous of which is arguably that of Karl Marx , whose tomb was the site of attempted bombings on 2 September 1965[8] [9] 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 Cemetery 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.
Notable East Cemetery interments
David Abbott , advertising executive and founder of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO who was widely regarded as one of the finest copywriters of his generation.Douglas Adams , author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Mehmet Aksoy , press officer for the Kurdish YPG , killed by ISIS in 2017[10] Wilkie Bard , popular vaudeville and music hall entertainer and recording artistFarzad Bazoft , journalist, executed by Saddam Hussein 's regimeJeremy Beadle , writer, television presenter and curator of odditiesAdolf Beck, the Adolph Beck case was a celebrated case of mistaken identity
Hercules Bellville , American film producerWilliam Betty , popular child actor of the early nineteenth centuryEmily Blatchley , pioneering Protestant Christian missionary to China Kate Booth , English Salvationist and evangelist. Oldest daughter of William and Catherine Booth . She was also known as la Maréchale William Bradbury , printer and publisher and co-founder of Bradbury and Evans Frederick Broome , colonial administrator of several British colonies. The Western Australian towns of Broome and Broomehill are named after himNeave Brown , American-British architectGeorge Barclay Bruce , world renown railway engineer and president of the Institution of Civil Engineers Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton, 1st Baronet , Scottish physician who is most closely associated with the treatment of angina pectoris James Caird , Scottish agricultural writer and politicianPatrick Caulfield , painter and printmaker known for his pop art canvassesDouglas Cleverdon , radio producer and booksellerWilliam Kingdon Clifford (with his wife Lucy ), mathematician and philosopherLucy Lane Clifford , novelist and journalist, wife of William Kingdon Clifford Yusuf Dadoo , South African anti-apartheid activistLewis Foreman Day , influential artist in the Arts and Crafts movement Sir Davison Dalziel, Bt , British newspaper owner and Conservative Party politician. Massive mausoleum near the entrance.Elyse Dodgson , theatre producerFritz Dupre , iron and manganese ore merchant, known as the "Manganese Ore King"Francis Elgar , naval architectGeorge Eliot (Mary Ann Evans – the name on the grave is Mary Ann Cross), novelist, common-law wife of George Henry Lewes and buried next to himEdwin Wilkins Field , lawyer who devoted much of his life to law reformPaul Foot , campaigning journalist and nephew of former Labour Party leader Michael Foot Lydia Folger Fowler , pioneering American physician and first American-born woman to earn a medical degreeWilliam Foyle , co-founder of Foyles William Friese-Greene , cinema pioneer and his son Claude Friese-Greene Lou Gish , actress, daughter of Sheila GishSheila Gish , actressPhilip Gould , British political consultant , and former advertising executive , closely linked to the Labour Party Robert Grant VC , soldier and police constableRobert Edmond Grant , Professor of Comparative Anatomy at University College London who gave his name to the Grant Museum of Zoology Charles Green , the United Kingdom's most famous balloonist of the 19th centuryLeon Griffiths , creator of Minder Stuart Hall , Jamaican -born British Marxist sociologist , cultural theorist , and political activist Harrison Hayter , railway, harbour and dock engineerMansoor Hekmat , Communist leader and founder of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran and Worker-Communist Party of Iraq Eric Hobsbawm , historianAustin Holyoake , printer, publisher, freethinker and brother of the more widely known George Holyoake George Holyoake , Birmingham-born social reformer and founder of the Cooperative Movement George Honey , popular Victorian actor and comedianAlan Howard , actorLeslie Hutchinson , Cabaret star of the 1920s and 1930sJabez Inwards , popular Victorian temperance lecturer and phrenologist Georges Jacobi , composer and conductorBert Jansch , Scottish folk musicianClaudia Jones , Trinidadian born Communist and fighter for civil rights, founder of The West Indian Gazette Notting Hill Carnival [11] George Goodwin Kilburne , genre painterDavid Kirkaldy , Scottish engineer and pioneer in materials testingAnatoly Kuznetsov , Soviet writer, author of the document in the form of a novel, Babi Yar Liza Lehmann , operatic soprano and composer, daughter of Rudolf Lehmann Rudolf Lehmann , portrait artist and father of Liza Lehmann Andrea Levy , novelist best known for the novels Small Island The Long Song George Henry Lewes , English philosopher and critic, common law husband of George Eliot and buried next to her.Roger Lloyd-Pack , British actor known for Only Fools and Horses The Vicar of Dibley John Lobb , Society bootmakerCharles Lucy , British artist, whose most notable painting was The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers Haldane MacFall , art critic, art historian, book illustrator and novelistAnna Mahler , sculptor and daughter of Gustav Mahler and Alma Schindler Chris Martin , Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister James Martineau , religious philosopher influential in the history of Unitarianism Karl Marx , philosopher, historian, sociologist and economist (memorial after his reburial, with other family members)Frank Matcham , theatre architectCarl Mayer , Austro-German screenwriter of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans Thomas McKinnon Wood , Liberal politician and Secretary of State for Scotland Malcolm McLaren , punk impresario and original manager of the Sex Pistols Ralph Miliband , left wing political theorist , father of David Miliband and Ed Miliband Alan Milward , influential historianWilliam Henry Monk , composer (of the music to Abide with Me Charles Morton , music hall and theatre manager who became known as the Father of the Halls Sidney Nolan , Australian artistGeorge Josiah Palmer , founder and editor of Church Times Charles J. Phipps , theatre architectTim Pigott-Smith , actorDachine Rainer , poet and anarchistCorin Redgrave , actor and political activistBruce Reynolds , criminal, mastermind of the Great Train Robbery (1963) Ralph Richardson , actorGeorge Richmond , painter and portraitistJosé Carlos Rodrigues , Brazilian journalist, financial expert, and philanthropistErnestine Rose , suffragist, abolitionist and freethinkerJames Samuel Risien Russell , Guyanese-British physician, neurologist, professor of medicine, and professor of medical jurisprudenceRaphael Samuel , Marxist historianAnthony Shaffer , playwright, screenwriter and novelistPeter Shaffer , playwright and screenwriterSir Eyre Massey Shaw , first Chief Officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Alan Sillitoe , English postmodern novelist, poet, and playwrightJames Smetham , Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painter, engraver and follower of Dante Gabriel Rossetti Sir Donald Alexander Smith , Canadian railway financier and diplomatHerbert Spencer , evolutionary biologist , sociologist, and laissez-faire economic philosopherSir Leslie Stephen , critic, first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell , members of the Bloomsbury Group Julia Princep Stephen , Pre-Raphaelite model and mother of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell , members of the Bloomsbury Group .William Heath Strange , physician and founder of the Hampstead General Hospital , now the Royal Free Hospital Lucien Stryk , American poet, teacher and translator of Zen poetryThomas Tate , mathematician and scientific educator and writerSir George Thalben-Ball , English organist, choirmaster and composer
Bob Thoms , the greatest Victorian cricket umpireJames Thomson , Victorian poet, best known for The City of Dreadful Night Storm Thorgerson , graphic designerMalcolm Tierney , actorFeliks Topolski , Polish-born British expressionist painterEdward Truelove , radical publisher and freethinkerPeter Ucko , influential English archaeologist Max Wall , comedian and entertainerSimon Ward , actorPeter Cathcart Wason , pioneering psychologistSir Lawrence Weaver , architectural writer, editor of Country Life and organiser of the British Empire Exhibition Opal Whiteley , American writerColin St John Wilson , architect (most notably of the new British Library in London), lecturer and authorJoseph Wolf , natural history illustrator and pioneer in wildlife artEdward Richard Woodham , survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington , politician, social activist and consumer champion.
War graves
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 Cemeteries, 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 cemetery.[12]
In popular culture
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 ".
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