27/10/2025
Recently I found myself in the vicinity of Highgate Cemetery so thought I'd pop by for a photoshoot. This is going to be one of my more informative collections, but if you just want to look at pretty pictures I won't be offended.
Highgate Cemetery was built as one of the 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries on the outskirts of London, to deal with the burial crisis where bodies were literally piling up by the sides of churches in the city. The London Cemetery Company created these privatised cemeteries, one chief selling point being the high security- a grand gatehouse reminiscent of a fortress serves as the entrance, and the best security money could afford would patrol the grounds day and night to prevent bodysnatchers that would look to sell corpses for medical science. The burial plots were sold in perpetuity, meaning it would inevitably be a short-sighted financial decision as they were hoping to make money off the maintenance of graves, only for two world wars to break out leaving no-one left of the respective families to keep up maintenance. The company went bankrupt and the cemetery fell into neglect.
It stayed like this for a few decades, becoming overgrown by natural wildlife giving it its distinctive modern appearance. This also made it the ideal location to be used as a film set for Hammer Horror (many of these photos may be recognisable from Christopher Lee films), and its spookiness led to it becoming the focal point of a vampire hunt in the mid-20th century, where unfortunately many of the graves were vandalised after reports of dark sinister rituals being conducted to raise the dead.
At this point the charity The Friends of Highgate Cemetery was founded, and they took on ownership of the land. Now they maintain it as best they can ensuring no further damage occurs.
I'll continue the lesson on several key photos, along with a couple of other comments. Facebook has a habit of uploading these in a semi-random order no matter how I try to organise them, so your tour might be slightly reversed...
Note that in previous graveyard shoots I try to avoid the front of the stones for the sake of privacy, but this being the most lavish graveyard in London where wealth and status were meant to be displayed I figured the occupants wouldn't mind having their names on display.
