Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery is one of the most famous cemetaries in the world. It is located in north London, England and is on the English heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.  There are about 170,000 people buried in the East and West parts of the cemetery.  The Western part is on a sloping hill and the eastern part is adjacent to an open unforested area.This beautiful place is both a nature reserve and the final resting place of many famous people.

It is located on both sides of Swain’s Lane in Highgate that is next to Waterlow Park. It was originally opened in 1839 and architect and entrepreneur Stephen Geary pioneered the original design. When it opened it was dedicated to St. James and consisted of fifteen acres of consecrated land.

This was and still is a very fashionable place to buried. There is a wealth of Gothic tombs and building in the area. Much of it has beautiful stone statuary that reflect the very romantic Victorian attitude towards death.  The grounds are also known for their unruly, overgrown appearance and the forest in the West part is home to many birds and animals including foxes. Many of the tombs have been dug into hillsides.   Many of the tombs are Grade I historically listed buildings including the tomb of Karl Marx.

Many famous people are buried there including Douglas Adams (author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Patrick Caulfield (pop art painter, George Eliot (novelist), Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols), Sir Ralph Richardson (actor) and many more.

It is also the home of the legendary and quite likely mythical creator known as The Highgate Vampire. During the sixties and seventies the place was a media sensation because it was supposedly home to a great deal of supernatural activity. At this time the graveyard was often vandalized by groups of young people holding occult rituals there. Any people have also reported seeing ghosts and vampires in the area. Ghost hunters and vampire hunters were regularly arrested for seeking out supernatural visitors in the graveyard at night.

Highgate cemetery has also featured prominently in U.K. culture and pop culture. The cemetery in Bram Stoker’s Gothic novel Dracula called Kingstead Cemetery is modelled on Highgate.  Footage of the cemetery also appears in many gory British horror films including “Tales From the Crypt” shot there in 1972.