Tales from the City of the Dead

The gothic grandeur of Highgate Cemetery has made it one of the most famous burial grounds in the world. Like Père Lachaise in Paris or the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, it is renowned for its macabre beauty as well as for being the final resting place of many famous figures. George Elliot, Christina Rossetti and Karl Marx are just a few of the 170,000 people who have been buried at Highgate over the years. These illustrious residents have made the Cemetery a place of pilgrimage for tourists and Londoners alike. In this article, we look at the history of this celebrated cemetery, sharing some of the secret stories that lurk amidst its crumbling, ivy-clad graves.

STYLE AND STATUS

The Cemetery was laid out by architect Stephen Geary, whose plans reflected contemporary tastes and fashions. Napoleon’s exploits in Egypt, for instance, had inspired a longstanding craze for ancient Egyptian design. This influenced Highgate’s famous ‘Egyptian Avenue’ and ‘Circle of Lebanon’, imposing arrangements of ornate burial vaults. They