HIGHGATE EAST CEMETERY

A Brief Introduction

The London Cemetery Company's cemetery of St James' at Highgate proved immensely popular when it first opened in 1839, with plots selling quite rapidly to members of the upper class to whom having a desirable resting place was a must. It was decided to extend the cemetery by purchasing land on the opposite side of the road, another 20 acres. Opening in 1854 it was not as romantic nor as ornate as its counterpart across the road. The Cemetery Company built no mausoleums, no avenues of tombs. The landscaping was also quite different with the slope of the hill not being as steep and with a wide road leading in and looping around the cemetery. The majority of the headstones being plain uprights. Even so it has its own charm and some very distinctive people interred with some monuments far more original than in the West Cemetery. Had it been elsewhere and not overshowed by the West it would be considered by some as being quite a unique and beautiful cemetery.

When the East Cemetery first opened it contained a lodge down at the Chester Road gate and a number of greenhouses. All now since removed, as the cemetery filled space became a premium. There are only three standing mausoleums all sited by the entrance on Swains Lane. Strathcona, Pocklington, and Dalziel. The Anglican mortuary chapel in the West was also enlarged to incorporate a catafalque and a tunnel built into the East, so that coffins could be lowered and funerals could access the cemetery unimpeeded by the busy traffic up and down Swains Lane. Although nothing remains of the catafalque the remains of the tunnel can still be seen at the southern end of the chapels, and also behind the Gardeners accommodation in the East the date 1855 can still be seen on the wall. The remains of the tunnel still exist under the accommodation but this is not accessible to the public.

It has more visitors than the West with most coming to see the grave of Karl Marx and the enormous edifice erected over it. Originally buried in a grave further down in the East Cemetery, in a plot paid for by Engels. It was decided by the British Communist Party that the occupants of the grave should be exhumed and reburied in a place more suitable for their annual gathering. This took place in 1954 and at this time Eleanor's ashes were also interred with the rest of the family. Then in 1956 the monument and huge head of Marx was put over the grave. The original gravesite can still be seen, marked by a broken stone detailing the names of the original occupants.

There are other notables whom people today can easily recognise or at least relate to the things they instigated or invented. For instance, Reginald Harrison, instigated the very first ambulance service on the streets of Liverpool; Richard 'Stoney' Smith, inventor of Hovis bread; George Elliot (Mary Ann Evans), Novelist; Sir Ralph Richardson, actor; William Foyle, founder of the bookshop that still bears his name on Charing Cross Road; and Douglas Adams, author of The Hithchikers Guide to the Galaxy.