#1 Start: Archway Station
Unfortunately, this is not a convenient site to visit. I recommend you take the underground from Notting Hill or Queensway station (on the Central Line) to Tottenham Court Road and then change to the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line to Archway Station. You can take a bus (210, 143, 271) two stops to Waterlow Park, and then stroll (about 5 minutes) through the park to the gates. Starting at the point where Highgate Hill becomes Highgate High Street and intersects with Hornsey Lane (from the right) and watch for signs of either Swain’s Lane or the cemetery.Or you can walk (10–15 minutes) up Highgate Hill.Walk along the top of Waterlow Park, where Highgate Hill becomes Highgate High Street. At the end of the park look to your left for Bisham Gardens Road that connects with Swain’s Lane, which leads directly into the Eastern and Western Cemeteries.Highgate Cemetery (outside of the village of Highgate, north of London) is an experience you ought not to miss. As one writer has noted, it is, “an atmosphere unlike anywhere else in London.” Roger Ebert, the film critic, in his guide book of London walks called it his favorite walk in London. I highly recommend that you spend at least half a day at the cemetery, “out of time and out of the world.”It is the final resting place of many of London’s most famous people, and the fictional "unresting" place of others. Bram Stoker, though he is buried elsewhere—in Golders Green crematorium—used Highgate as the restive resting site of the character Lucy Westenra in his Dracula novel. Karl Marx is perhaps the most illustrious of the inhabitants of the cemetery, but other notables are buried here as well: George Eliot, author of Silas Marner, the Mill on the Floss, and Middlemarch; Herbert Spencer, father of Social Darwinism; Michael Faraday, discoverer of electromagnetic induction; William Foyle, of Foyle’s Bookshop; Christina Rossetti, Victorian poetess—and many of her family; and many of the Dickens’ family are found there.Highgate dates to Victorian times, and is an excellent reflection of Victorian ideals. In fact, it is often referred to as the “Victorian Valhalla.” It was established in 1839, two years after the ascension of Queen Victoria, and dedicated as the cemetery of St. James’ at Highgate by the Bishop of London. Overcrowding in London’s cemeteries, and other problems such as grave robbing and body snatching, were rendering burial problems intolerable. To relieve these issues, Parliament authorized the creation of a ring of seven cemeteries (commonly known as “The Magnificent Seven” (of which Highgate was one) around inner London. By 1854, so popular had the cemetery become that another (Eastern) twenty-acre extension was added. If you are a history buff, or enjoy historical cemeteries, additional information about The Magnificent Seven can be found online.
#2 West Cemetery
The West Cemetery is only open to guided tours, and you will need to check a time and schedule to participate. Be prepared to tip the guide.Two features of the West Cemetery at Highgate set it apart from the other cemeteries of the times: the Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon. The Egyptian Avenue is entered through two iron gates flanked by two obelisks. It is a street of family vaults supposedly based on the style of ancient Egyptian tombs. The author of an 1865 guidebook writes, "As we enter the massive portals, and hear the echo of our footsteps intruding on the awful silence of this cold, stony death-palace, we might also fancy ourselves treading through the mysterious corridors of an Egyptian temple."The Circle of Lebanon, so named because of its circular shape and a giant Cedar of Lebanon nearby, lies at the end of the avenue. This circular subterranean structure, created by digging winding paths and tombs into hillsites, is lined on both sides by a series of family vaults, each protected at its entranceway by iron grids. Some of the mausoleums standing among the catacombs are three stories high. From the circle, one ascends back on stone stairs to the surface area of the cemetery.A visitor noted: "No cemetery near London can boast so many natural beauties. The irregularity of the ground, rising in terraces, the winding paths leading through long avenues of cool shrubbery and marble monuments, and the groups of majestic trees casting broad shadows below, contribute many natural charms to this solemn region. In the genial summer time, when the birds are singing blithely in their leafy recesses, and the well cared for graves are dazzling with the varied hues of beautiful flowers, there is a holy loveliness upon this place of death."Much of this changed with World War II. German bombs took their toll on the cemetery as they had elsewhere. The deterioration of Highgate was out of control. The main buildings were left largely dilapidated and the landscape had returned to nature. Trees, forcing their way up near the graves, toppled many of the head stones. In 1975, the West Cemetery was locked up and largely abandoned. The East Cemetery was left open for the time being.One historian compared the resulting scene, with its dark foliage and dense growth, to a lost city. The setting was perfect for gothic thrillers, and during the 1970s one movie company, Hammer Films, discovered Highgate and used it as a backdrop for several of its horror films. Soon, other movie studios followed suit. Stories of the macabre began to circulate widely and even more harm was inflicted on the cemetery by vampire hunters and other thrill seekers who reportedly converged on Highgate at night, defiling the tombs and breaking funeral urns in the mausoleums.In 1981, some of the local citizens formed an organization, Friends of Highgate Cemetery, to do what they could to reclaim this fascinating old historic site with its estimated 168,000 people buried in 52,000 graves—in some of the family graves, coffins are stacked as many as seven deep. Paths were reclaimed through the Western Cemetery and some of the foliage there was brought under control, though much of it still has a wild appearance. Guided tours are now possible through the western half of Highgate, and visitors are left free to roam at will on the eastern part. Both require an admission price and a camera fee for photography. One of the most popular sites in the Eastern Cemetery is the massive (a favorite word of the Brits) headstone of Karl Marx. Across the walkway is the much smaller marker of Herbert Spencer, hence the Highgate version of Marx and Spencer. Around in back of Spencer’s gravesite is that of George Eliot, with whom he was romantically attached for a time.Highgate Hill was once the site of a cable tramway built in 1884, Europe’s first. In the middle of the path on the way up the hill is a monument supposedly marking the spot at which Dick Whittington (see City walk) was called back to London by the Bow Bells. Although the cat on the top was sculpted in 1964, the original stone dates back to 1821.
#3 The End: Return to the BYU Centre
When you are finished at the cemetery, follow Swain’s Lane back into Highgate town. The town is also worth a couple of hours of window shopping, or you can catch the tube from there.
