Waking the Dead: Highgate Cemetery, London

The latest in the ongoing seasonal, pre-Samhain Halloween Necroblog. Last weekend, a crack Blather team descended upon the sprawling Necropolis of London's Highgate Cemetery. No Vampires were injured in the process...

I visited Highgate Cemetery in London last weekend - was dismayed at first by the restrictions on photography, but was able to take quite a few images while I was. I was hindered by a lack of light, but made the most of it. The whole post-gothic Victorian necropolis is under siege by nature - when entering the Circle of Lebanon (a huge neo-Egyptian mausoleum complex) we even saw a fox. The tour was lead by a stout elderly gentlemen with a walking stick, who puffed and panted his way through the tour. I wondered if he himself would expire before the downhill section started. On a poignant note, it seems that his wife is buried in the cemetery...

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After October of 1866, Rossetti rarely ventured out of his house in the daytime. He soon developed insomnia and what was a probably psychosomatic affliction of the eyes. Concern about his failing eyesight was perhaps what prompted him to turn back to poetry. Six years after Lizzie's burial, he tried to recall the poems from the buried manuscript. Finding himself unable to remember satisfactorily, he came up with a plan to remove the notebook from the coffin. This action would, of course, need to be kept strictly confidential because of its sensational nature. On October 5, 1869, a group of men traveled at night to Highgate Cemetery to remove the rotting notebook. It was delivered to Rossetti, who then copied the poems and destroyed the original.

Rossetti and Highgate »

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Circle of Lebanon
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Circle of Lebanon
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Circle of Lebanon
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Circle of Lebanon
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Circle of Lebanon
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Grave of George Wombell, 'Menagarist'
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Grave of George Wombell, 'Menagarist'
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I love the photo of the broken statues, standing guard over the mausoleums. It adds a faux-classical look to graves, which is no doubt what the victorian builders were looking for.

I had some idea of going to Highgate when I was next in London. Why kind of photography restrictions did they have ? It seems that there's restrictions on photographers in every puplic place I go to these days...

Ah, it was sorta lax. It said 'photography only allowed with small cameras. no professional photography'. But i had no problems, and I was running around with my 20d.

Looks like a great place to film a serious horror film . But I don't suppose that will be happening soon.

Actually, when the cemetery hit hard times in the 1960s, they made loads of Hammer Horror Movies there.
www.hammerfilms.com

Hey! Some pictures for the artwork for the album «Midian» from the band Cradle Of Filth have been take at this cemetery... i am sure about it! Check this!

The Times: Writers attracted by a cemetery to die for

we are cemetery committee members,in Lagos-Nigeria wanting a visitation for a courtesy visit to any cemetery in the Uk.As such needs all relevant information of cemeteries in the Uk for a visit...Thank you.

Hello fellow ghouls!
Does anybody remember in 1970 of
a famous grave robbing in the cemetery. I think it concerned The circle of Lebonon, where a skull was taken one night then
the rest of the mummified body was extricated and left in the front seat of a car hands on wheel?(the owner was not amused)
I believe a well known ghoul of his day Mr David Farrent was accused of desicrating the grave but subsiquently cleared of all charges because someone else admitted
the crime.
I believe the skull was never found the last I heard it was
last seen on a mantlepiece in
north London.
Happy Ghoulsday

Remember? I wasn't even conceived!

Thanks Dave for your contribution.I know I was in Bhagdad while you were in dads bag.

Ah yes the dreaded highgate vampire! subject of much debate even today ! lol

I´ve been there once,14 years ago.As far as I can remember,there were no particular photo restrictions back then,but then again I didn´t(which I regret)bring a camera.I love the pictures,it was even more wonderful than I remember it!