Highgate Cemetery is renowned for its famous residents, including Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and George Michael. But the burial ground’s 19th century beginnings are far less well known.
The establishment of the private cemetery was, as a new exhibition shows, a solution to churchyards overflowing with dead bodies, which left people concerned about their welfare after death.
The exhibition, at the Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre (CLSAC), is displaying previously unseen images from the cemetery’s past to help illustrate the story.
Dr Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, curated the exhibition. He explained the cemetery’s establishment was as an institution which could protect the dead from physical and spiritual bogeymen.
“Churchyards, such as the one still in St Pancras, were overflowing”, he said. “Coffins were becoming cheaper and people just weren’t decaying fast enough.
“The other thing was the body snatchers. People had a fear of being interfered with after death, and that’s where the private cemetery companies came in. This wasn’t a problem that was going to be solved by the Church of England.”
High walls and tight security were therefore a major selling point for the cemetery, in addition to its position in the capital. Dr Dungavell said that “Highgate had by far the best location of any in London. It was seen as a city of the dead looking back at the city of the living.”
The current exhibition also draws attention to Egyptian influences on the cemetery, especially in regard to its catacombs, dating from 1838.
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HeadlineNew exhibition tells of Highgate Cemetery’s body-snatching origins
Short HeadlineExhibition shows previously unseen Highgate Cemetery pictures
StandfirstThe Local Studies and Archives Centre exhibition hopes to reveal burial ground's 'bogeymen' past.
Highgate Cemetery is renowned for its famous residents, including Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and George Michael. But the burial ground’s 19th century beginnings are far less well known.
The establishment of the private cemetery was, as a new exhibition shows, a solution to churchyards overflowing with dead bodies, which left people concerned about their welfare after death.
The exhibition, at the Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre (CLSAC), is displaying previously unseen images from the cemetery’s past to help illustrate the story.
Dr Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, curated the exhibition. He explained the cemetery’s establishment was as an institution which could protect the dead from physical and spiritual bogeymen.
“Churchyards, such as the one still in St Pancras, were overflowing”, he said. “Coffins were becoming cheaper and people just weren’t decaying fast enough.
“The other thing was the body snatchers. People had a fear of being interfered with after death, and that’s where the private cemetery companies came in. This wasn’t a problem that was going to be solved by the Church of England.”
High walls and tight security were therefore a major selling point for the cemetery, in addition to its position in the capital. Dr Dungavell said that “Highgate had by far the best location of any in London. It was seen as a city of the dead looking back at the city of the living.”
The current exhibition also draws attention to Egyptian influences on the cemetery, especially in regard to its catacombs, dating from 1838.
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