Alan Payling continues his occasional feature looking at tours with a difference, and finds that some excursions really are a matter of life and death
The month’s choice outing is a trip to a cemetery. However this is not just any old burial ground but a grand Victorian graveyard, Highgate cemetery. Before I outline what’s on offer in North London, it might be worth responding to the question that I suspect is on the lips of the reader: who would want to visit a graveyard? Well, actually, the evidence suggests that quite a lot of people do. Take the mother, father and granddaddy of all burial grounds just outside Cairo. That’s right, the Pyramids. That’s just what the three wonders of the world at Giza are: tombs for the Pharaohs.
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And look how many people have visited that cemetery over the years. Over in the USA, there’s a good chance visitors to Washington DC will pay a visit to Arlington Cemetery. The cemetery’s website reveals that in the three years following his internment at Arlington in November 1963, 16 million people paid homage at the grave of President John F Kennedy.
The French also go in for graveyard visits in a big way. Again, if you look at the website for their cemeteries in Paris, it’s a very well-trodden path on the tourist trail. For Francophiles with an interest in French culture, the Montmartre Cemetery has the graves of film director Francois Truffaut, writers Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola, and the composer, Hector Berlioz. The Pere-Lachaise cemetery is the last resting place of chanteuse Edith Piaf, writer Oscar Wilde and pop singer Jim Morrison. Perhaps the reader thinks that the British don’t go in for that sort of thing.
Well, no visit to Westminster Abbey would be complete without a visit to Poet’s Corner. Here visitors can pay homage to the graves and memorials of our great writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Johnson, Rudyard Kipling and Alfred Tennyson. Then there are the memorials to writers like William Shakespeare, DH Lawrence, John Betjeman, the Bronte sisters, Robert Burns, Lord Byron and Lewis Carroll amongst many others. This includes the First World War poets Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. All told, I think that there is a considerable interest in visiting the graveyards of the famous and paying one’s respects. That’s not to mention the many visits that have been made to the grave of Lady Diana at Althorp.
Highgate
In addition to the graves of the famous, Highgate Cemetery is also visited because of the 19th century architecture. This Victorian necropolis is described on the cemetery’s website as: ‘One of England’s greatest treasures. Highgate Cemetery has some of the finest funerary architecture in the country. It is a place of peace and contemplation where a romantic profusion of trees, memorials and wildlife flourish. While guided tours are available in the East Cemetery, visitors are free to wander at will. Here they can find the graves of the famous from the 19th century like philosopher Karl Marx and writer George Eliot. However, there are people who made their mark in the 20th century buried in this part of the cemetery. This includes guitarist Bert Jansch, the journalist Paul Foot, the comedian Max Wall, the writer Douglas Adams and the ‘Writer, Presenter and Curator of Oddities,’ Jeremy Beadle no less. The 300 war graves from the two world wars tell many stories of bravery under fire for those who want to do a bit of research. The East Cemetery is the final resting place of Squadron Leader Eric Bruce King of 151 Squadron, RAF, one of ‘the few’. At the height of the Battle of Britain in August 1940, his aircraft was severely damaged on two occasions on the 14th and the 24th, but he survived. On the third occasion, on the 30th, he wasn’t so lucky. There’s a lot of history here and it’s not just about the famous; the infamous also rest in peace here like the train robber, Bruce Reynolds.
The West Cemetery is home to the most impressive architectural features of Highgate but can only be accessed with a guide. This includes the Chapel Colonnade, Egyptian Avenue, Circle of Lebanon, Terrace Catacombs and the mausoleum of Julius Beer. This was a testament to a father’s love for his lost daughter, Ada, the mausoleum being a splendid work of art. Designed by leading architect John Oldrid Scott and based on the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it dominates the top of the cemetery. The tour does not allow visitors inside the mausoleum but on Highgate’s website, there is a 360 degree tour of the stunning interior. The video shows Ada being lifted heavenwards by an angel in a very touching sculpture by H. H. Armstead.
One of the other impressive architectural features of Highgate takes us back to where we started when looking at well visited graveyards, Egyptian Avenue. When Highgate was founded, interest in ancient Egypt was very strong and was increased by Napoleon’s and Nelson’s military campaigns in that area. The association of the Egyptian style of architecture with the memorialisation of the dead was therefore a natural consequence for the Victorians.
There is an awful lot to see at Highgate that will make visits well worthwhile. While it might appear a bit unusual, nonetheless, offering tours and excursions to places that are a bit unusual can lead to some welcome business. It just goes to show that when it comes to visits to such places, a different perspective on what interests people can be worthwhile, but only if you think outside the box.
Contact: 020 8340 1834
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Location: Highgate Cemetery, Swain’s Lane, London, N6 6PJ
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