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Highgate Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in Highgate, London, England.
The cemetery in its original form (the older, Western part) was opened in 1839, part of an initiative to provide seven large, modern cemeteries in a ring round the outside of 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.
Highgate, like the others, soon became a fashionable place for burials and was much admired and visited. The Victorian attitude to death and its presentation led to the creation of a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings. It occupies a spectacular hillside site slightly downhill from the top of the hill of Highgate itself, next to Waterlow Park , both of which were part of the former Dartmouth Park which covered the area.
In 1854 the area to the east of the original area across Swains Lane was purchased to form the eastern part of the cemetery. This part is still used today for burials.
The cemetery's grounds are full of old-growth trees, shrubbery and wildflowers that are a haven for birds and small animals like hedgehogs. The Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon (topped by a huge Cedar of Lebanon) feature tombs, vaults and winding paths dug into hillsides. For its protection, the oldest section, which holds an impressive collection of Victorian mausoleums and gravestones, plus elaborately carved tombs, allows admission only in tour groups. The newer section, which contains most of the angel statuary, can be toured unescorted.
Although its most famous occupant in the east cemetery is probably Karl Marx (whose tomb's most recent bombing is still recalled by some Highgate residents), there are several prominent Victorians buried here. Interments include:
- Edward Hodges Baily - (Sculptor)
- Rowland Hill - (Inventor of postage stamps)
- John Singleton Copley - (Artist)
- George EliotMary Ann Evans known by the pen name George Eliot ( 22 November 1819 22 December 1880), was an English novelist. Born on a farm near Nuneaton in Warwickshire, she wrote about life in country towns in many of her novels. She used a male pen name, she said, (Mary Ann Evans) - (Novelist)
- Michael FaradayMichael Faraday ( September 22, 1791 August 25, 1867) was a British scientist (a physicist and chemist) who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry and invented the Bunsen burner. Michael Faraday was one of the great scientists - (Scientist)
- William Friese-GreeneWilliam Friese-Greene ( September 7, 1855 May 5, 1921) (born William Edward Green was a portrait photographer and prolific inventor. He is principally known as a pioneer in the field of motion pictures and is credited by some as the inventor of cinematogr - (Inventor of cinematographyCinematography is the art and process of recording visual images for motion pictures. A professional who engages in cinematography is known as a cinematographer. As a process, it is closely related to photography. Cinematography involves the framing of a)
- Radclyffe HallRadclyffe Hall was a British lesbian, author of The Well of Loneliness''. Hall, Radclyffe Hall, Radclyffe Hall, Radclyffe. - (Author of The Well of Loneliness and other novels)
- Karl Heinrich Marx - (Father of Marxist philosophy, the basis of Communism.)
- Henry MooreThis article is about the sculptor. For the governor of New York, see Henry Moore (governor). Henry Spencer Moore ( July 30, 1898 August 31, 1986) was an artist and sculptor. Born into a poor mining family in Leeds, he became well known for his large sca, (1841-1893) -- (Marine painter)
- Michael RedgraveMargaret Lockwood in The Lady Vanishes (1938) Sir Michael Redgrave ( March 20, 1908 March 21, 1985) was an English actor. Born in Buckinghamshire, the son of Australian silent film star Roy Redgrave, he attended Cambridge University and briefly taught sch - (actor)
- Ralph RichardsonSir Ralph David Richardson ( December 19, 1902 1983) was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid- 20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, did their best to make the transition to film. Richardson was born - (actor)
- Elizabeth Siddall - (Wife and model of artist/poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti)
- Sir Donald Alexander Smith - ( Canadian railway financier and diplomat)
See also: List of other famous cemeteries
