The secrets of Highgate Cemetery

Things are hotting up at Highgate Cemetery. Or they’ll need to if the grander tombs are to survive. During one cold spell last year, the huge mausoleum to Victorian banker Julius Beer froze on the inside as well as the outside, breaking some of the glass tiles. Lead lettering is another weak point – water gets into cracks, expands as it turns to ice, and forces letters off. So electric heating is being considered. The charity that looks after the cemetery admits this seems bizarre, ‘but it could save us a lot of money’.

The cemetery dates from 1839, one of London’s ‘Magnificent Seven’, which were opened to cope with the city’s expanding population. The initial design was by Stephen Geary, who also created the monument to George IV that gave King’s Cross its name, and who is in the cemetery himself. Fifteen acres were consecrated for Church of England use, with another two for dissenters (such as the scientist Michael Faraday). In 1860 an extension opened on the other side of Swain’s Lane. To avoid coffins having to cross the road after ceremonies in the chapel, a hydraulic lift and underground tunnel were built.

There are 53,000 graves (many of them family affairs – the body count is actually 170,000). You’d think a cemetery as celebrated as this one (it inspired Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book) would have filled up years ago, but they’re still creating space for about 30 new plots each year. You can only buy them for immediate use – to purchase a plot in advance you must be over 80 or terminally ill. There’s an air of ‘standards’ about the website: until recently it decreed that visitors must be ‘suitably dressed – women must have their shoulders covered and men must not be bare-chested or wear vest-tops’.