Having visited two of the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven‘ already this year (the seven cemeteries built in the early Victorian era to relieve the overcrowding of graveyards in the City of London) I thought it was time to visit the grandest of them all this weekend, and so earlier today you’d have found us at Highgate Cemetery in North London.
The Cemetery itself runs down the steep hill from Highgate village and is split on a north-south axis by Swain’s Lane. The East Cemetery, while having some very grand tombs (including the resting place of the celebrated revolutionary Karl Marx) it is still open for burials. So, amongst the grand Victorian edifices you’ll find more recent additions, including the marble books that form Jeremy Beadle’s headstone, the deliberately amusing epitaph of pop-artist Patrick Caulfield, with its cut-out letters spelling D, E, A & D, as well as a rather more humble but lovingly carved wooden headstone emblazoned with two Ms, and with the words ‘Malcolm was here’ written beneath them – this is, of course, the grave of pop impressario and Sex Pistols manager, the wonderfully outspoken Malcolm McClaren.
The West Cemetery is (mostly – we’ll get to that in a minute) the resting place of the wealthy of Victorian London. Pass through the gates between the Anglican and Dissenters chapels and the first thing you’ll come across is the grand collonade where the horse-drawn hearses would stop before carrying the coffin up the Northwest path (if you were very wealthy or a member of the landed gentry) or the Southwest path (for the less well-healed) into the cemetery itself. Not far up the path we did actually come across one of the rare internments of modern times, namely of the person who died after ingesting polonium-210… enough said. Head further up the hill and you’ll find the tombs that have the most elaborate setting of any in modern London – namely those on the ‘Egyptian Avenue‘ and the ‘Circle of Lebanon, created by JB Bunning and which, unsurprisingly given their unique qualities, are Grade 2* listed structures. The ‘Egyptian Avenue’ itself is profoundly odd – a Disney-like recreation complete with fake obelisks, and fake pillars topped with lotus buds leading to a long corridor of tombs beyond. Recent research has indicated that the avenue was probably brightly painted at the time of its construction – no surprise then that it was deeply unpopular for burials and remains less than half-full to this day. The ‘Circle of Lebanon’ however, which the avenue leads to, proved to be one of the most fashionable places for a grand Victorian to be buried – it is both mysterious and oddly beautiful, and takes its name from the huge cedar of Lebanon that looms over it. You’ll have seen it in several films set in the period, most recently in a scene from the 2009 movie starring Colin Firth, ‘Dorian Gray‘.
I’d be here all evening talking about the cemetery’s other unique qualities but I’ll touch on one or two more interesting points before leaving you, perhaps, to contemplate life and the brief time that we get to live it. I think my favourite of the buildings in the West Cemetery is the huge mausoleum of Julius Beer, the man born a pauper in Germany who became a mutli-millionaire and ended up as proprietor of the Observer newspaper in the late 1800s. Architecturally it’s a very fine building but I have another reason for liking it – it was built to a massive scale in order to deliberately obscure the view over London from the balcony above the tombs beyond as they belonged to the gentry, in whose company he was never welcome as he was a commoner, despite being vastly more wealthy than most of them put together. Peer inside (no photograph of this I’m afraid as that isn’t allowed inside the mausoleum) and you’ll find fine marble walls and a graceful statue of his much-loved daughter. Estimates of the original cost of its construction run in to the high tens of millions of pounds in modern terms…
One more thing I’ll leave you with – the delightful tale of the Victorian menagerist, George Wombwell, who is buried here. Wombwell would travel the country with his exotic animals putting on shows and on one occasion passed the other notable exotic collection of his arch-rival Atkins on the road going in the other direction. Deciding that he would pit his animals against theirs he turned around and raced after them. Unfortunately his ancient elephant (whose name escapes me) expired on the journey and so when he arrived his rivals were proudly displaying a sign stating that they had the ‘The only live elephant in England’. Determined not to be outdone, he put up a similar sign saying ‘The only dead elephant in London’ and charged people a few pennies a time to look at it, lift its trunk, poke its leathery skin and stroke its tusks. Of course people being naturally full of curiosity, he made more money from the venture! You can easily spot his grave on the path because his noble and apparently perfectly tame lion, Nero, sleeps peacefully over the tomb. Strangely enough, although the elements have stained and weathered him over the years, Nero is actually carved from the purest white marble. Isn’t he a majestic beast?
Now for the slightly bad news – entry to the East Cemetery will cost you £3, and entry to the West Cemetery will cost you £7, and you can only g
o in if you are part of one of the regular guided tours. That being said, the majority of guides and staff are volunteers and the money that you give will go to the upkeep of the cemetery itself. It’s probably the best £10 I’ve spent in ages, even if it was frittered away on the dead…
