The resting place of many notable Victorians.
Highgate Cemetery is in Highgate, in north London. When it was opened in 1839, the population of London was expanding rapidly and church yards were either full or quickly filling up. Highgate Cemetery was one of number of new private cemeteries approved of by Act of Parliament. It was designed to cater for the wealthy middle classes of London.
Once it was landscaped, and chapels and vaults added, it became the burial place of many famous people who lived in London. The cemetery became so successful that an extension was added.
The Victorian way of death is clearly displayed with elaborate mausoleums, tombs with carved figures, and inscribed gravestones.
Highgate Cemetery is in Highgate, in north London. When it was opened in 1839, the population of London was expanding rapidly and church yards were either full or quickly filling up. Highgate Cemetery was one of number of new private cemeteries approved of by Act of Parliament. It was designed to cater for the wealthy middle classes of London.
Once it was landscaped, and chapels and vaults added, it became the burial place of many famous people who lived in London. The cemetery became so successful that an extension was added.
The Victorian way of death is clearly displayed with elaborate mausoleums, tombs with carved figures, and inscribed gravestones.
The occupants of the cemetery read like a Who's Who of Victorian and Edwardian society. These are just a few of them:
The most famous is Karl Marx, political economist and theorist
Christina Rossetti, poet, the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of artists, and his wife Elizabeth Siddal, artists' model. She was buried with his poems which he decided to recover from her coffin some years later
Peter Robinson, founder of a famous department store
John Maple, founder of Maples, another department store
Charles Cruft founder of the famous dog show which took his name: Crufts
Henry Young Darracott Scott, co-designer of the Albert Hall
Michael Faraday, chemist and physicist
William Alfred Westropp Foyle, founder of Foyles Bookshop
Brodie Wilcox, co-founder of P&O shipping
Tom Sayers, bare-knuckle boxing champion. His tomb has a statue of his faithful dog 'Lion'
William Friese-Greene, motion photography pioneer
Mary Ann Evans who wrote under the pen name of George Elliott
Many parts of the cemetery are now overgrown, but the ivy creeping over the graves makes it very atmospheric and a popular subject for photographers.
The most famous is Karl Marx, political economist and theorist
Christina Rossetti, poet, the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of artists, and his wife Elizabeth Siddal, artists' model. She was buried with his poems which he decided to recover from her coffin some years later
Peter Robinson, founder of a famous department store
John Maple, founder of Maples, another department store
Charles Cruft founder of the famous dog show which took his name: Crufts
Henry Young Darracott Scott, co-designer of the Albert Hall
Michael Faraday, chemist and physicist
William Alfred Westropp Foyle, founder of Foyles Bookshop
Brodie Wilcox, co-founder of P&O shipping
Tom Sayers, bare-knuckle boxing champion. His tomb has a statue of his faithful dog 'Lion'
William Friese-Greene, motion photography pioneer
Mary Ann Evans who wrote under the pen name of George Elliott
Many parts of the cemetery are now overgrown, but the ivy creeping over the graves makes it very atmospheric and a popular subject for photographers.
