Outside the catacombs stands the mausoleum of Julius Beer. The ingenious solution was to drill a small hole into the coffin, insert a pipe and burn the gases off. Room for 825 people in total! We heard how coffins were once prone to exploding due to a build up of gases inside them. It takes a moment longer to realise that every recess on either side of the passageway houses a coffin. Our eyes slowly accustomed to the dark inside our next stop, the above ground Terrace Catacombs. Circle of Lebanon, West Highgate cemetery The Victorians certainly knew how to celebrate their interred relations, very different to today’s attitude to death. The Egyptian Avenue leads out into the Circle of Lebanon a huge 300 year old cedar tree surrounded by a circle of tombs. I’m not sure whether the bodies or the spiders unsettle me more! Circle of Lebanon, West Highgate cemetery Discovered during a bat survey the London Wildlife Trust estimates the vaults could contain a hundred of these adult cave spiders. There are sixteen family vaults on either side of the avenue each with room for twelve coffins. The vaults are also home to a large spider, the rare orb weaver. From here we followed the path up through the graveyard to the Egyptian Avenue, flanked by columns and obelisks. We started our tour in the open space in front of The Colonnade big enough, our guide explained, so that the horse drawn carriages delivering coffins could turn around. Entrance to the Egyptian Avenue, West Highgate cemtetery Some visitors call it romantic, others creepy I guess I’m somewhere in between. Nature is in charge tree roots climb over gravestones, ivy and bramble tendrils encircle the monuments. Imagine instead a jumbled area of crowded gravestones and gothic and Egyptian influenced monuments, some covered with ‘Dangerous’ tape. West Highgate Cemeteryįorget your local graveyard. We visited West Highgate on a guided tour before crossing Swain’s Lane to look around the East Cemetery independently. Decaying and vandalised it was taken over in 1975 by a charity, the Friends of Highgate Cemetery, who work to restore and preserve the area. However, the cemetery fell into decline after the second World War. Many of London’s wealthiest were laid to rest in Highgate. Prior to this, burials were in local churchyards but these were literally overflowing due to the doubling of London’s population. Highgate was one of seven new private London cemeteries, constructed in the Victorian era, to accommodate the increasing number of burials. There’s a square opposite to sit and eat your lunch in. Despite the expensive sounding name, and location, our picnic lunch was incredible value and very tasty, highly recommended. However plenty of swimmers looked like they were enjoying it, particularly the divers jumping off the board in the men’s bathing pond.īefore heading to the cemetery we popped into the Village Deli in Highgate village for a takeaway lunch. I’m not a water lover so couldn’t imagine wanting to swim in them, surrounded by ducks and pond debris. These were much busier than I expected on a gloomy weekday. ![]() Highgate is also famous for its outdoor bathing ponds. ![]() Some of the other buildings shown on the orientation map were harder I couldn’t see the London Eye however much I looked. ![]() ![]() From here the Shard, Gherkin, St Paul’s Cathedral and BT Tower are all easy to see. Our route took us up to the viewpoint on Parliament Hill. The daytime reality was a tranquil dog walking and running area, albeit one that was in need of a good dose of rain. My prior knowledge mostly came from lurid tabloid headlines about the after dark activities of gay men on the western heath. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hampstead Heath. We had a couple of hours spare before our cemetery tour so I’d planned a walking route from Hampstead Heath underground station to Highgate Cemetery. We spent an afternoon visiting the cemetery after a morning walk across Hampstead Heath. Highgate Cemetery, one of my UK bucket list items, might appear a strange destination for a family day out but we loved it.
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