
The Dorking Group went on a guided tour of Highgate Cemetery and luckily chose a beautiful sunny day, which made the experience much less macabre than it might have been. Highgate Cemetery is actually in two parts: our tour took us around the Western side which then allowed us to wander through the Eastern side at our own pace. Highgate was one of 7 cemeteries set up around the outskirts of London in the 1830’s when the rapidly expanding city of London meant that inevitably, there were more people dying and the small parish churchyards were overflowing with corpses. Also, with ever present grave robbers, the population was desperate for somewhere safe to bury their loved ones. The cemeteries were like fortresses with high walls and guards, but the architecture of the memorials and tombs was breath takingly grand. In the eastern side alone, there are over 50,000 tombs, some quite new, such as Alexander Litvinenko and George Michael, but most are from the late 1800s and early 1900’s. Whilst the memorials and headstones are jam packed together, the cemetery was allowed to get over grown during the end of the 1900’s, so at first sight it appears like woodland and is teeming with wildlife, including lots of birdsong. Our guide pointed out various tombs including Tom Sayers a famous boxer, and an animal showman, George Wombwell. People who were famous in their day but now long forgotten.

The most famous tomb is that of Karl Marx which was very grand, whereas that of Michael Faraday was very simple as he humbly believed that God would know where he was buried and so there was no need for any mark on his grave. His wife apparently did insist on the plain head stone. We were allowed to go into the catacombs which was fascinating and not at all eery. All in all we were very impressed by the whole visit and our enthusiastic guide. Currently a charity runs the cemeteries and all money goes into the upkeep of this extremely interesting historical place. It is well worth a visit.