Uncover the mysteries of Highgate Cemetery

Followed by: pub lunch (at own cost) at the Flask, Highgate

Maximum Number: 15 – book early to avoid disappointment

Price: £18 pp.

Join us for an unforgettable guided tour of Highgate Cemetery, one of the most remarkable and unusual historic landscapes in Britain.

Opened in 1839 it was one of seven grand Victorian garden cemeteries created in response to London’s overflowing burial grounds and sanitation crisis.  Set in its lofty location with expansive views across the living city below, it was designed not simply as a burial ground where mourners could take solace within its sanctuary, but as a place of beauty and reflection.

In its early decades, Highgate became one of London’s most fashionable places to be buried. Victorian families commissioned elaborate tombs and mausoleums, creating a dramatic funerary landscape filled with Gothic pinnacles, Egyptian-inspired tombs, and symbolic sculpture. But, by the mid-twentieth century, the site had fallen into a spiral of neglect. Then, in the 1970s, local volunteers stepped in to save the cemetery from ruin, forming the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, whose stewardship has transformed Highgate into the unique blend of historic monument and wild woodland visitors experience today.

———-

Our tour will start in the West Cemetery where we will explore the cemetery’s most celebrated architectural spaces, including the imposing Egyptianesque vault complex of the  Egyptian Avenue and the magnificent Circle of Lebanon.  Rising above that, the Terrace Catacombs will be opened for you to reveal one of the largest surviving catacomb structures in Britain, demonstrating the scale, ambition and ultimately the hubris of Victorian funerary design. 

As we wander, we will encounter the stories of some of the remarkable and diverse individuals buried here, ranging from the groundbreaking scientist Michael Faraday, to murdered Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko, by way of pioneering surgeon Robert Liston, pugilist Tom Sayers, the Rossetti family and many more including the splendid monument of furniture entrepreneur John Maple.  On conclusion, we will briefly visit the East Cemetery to see the imposing monument to revolutionary philosopher Karl Marx.

N.B. There will be a considerable amount of walking, including uphill, both the reach the cemetery entrance, during the tour and afterwards, to arrive at the pub!

Please contact Sally@furnituremakers.org.uk to book your place.