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Photographs Of Highgate Cemetery, London

Highgate Cemetery
Grave of George Wombell, 'Menagarist'
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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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Highgate Cemetery official website
More on Wikipedia about Highgate Cemetery
Worzel Tod's Highgate photos

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 »



Highgate Cemetery
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Highgate Cemetery
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Highgate Cemetery, Circle of Lebanon
Circle of Lebanon
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Highgate Cemetery, Circle of Lebanon
Circle of Lebanon
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Highgate Cemetery, Circle of Lebanon, Circle of Lebanon
Circle of Lebanon
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Highgate Cemetery, Circle of Lebanon
Circle of Lebanon
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Highgate Cemetery
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Highgate Cemetery
Grave of George Wombell, 'Menagarist'
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Highgate Cemetery
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Highgate Cemetery
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Highgate Cemetery
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Highgate Cemetery
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Highgate Cemetery
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Highgate Cemetery
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Full selection of High Resolution Photographs from Highgate Cemetery »

Comments (8)

Ooooooh! Very eerie and magic, Dave!

Lookie, here's the last girl's little sister from the Eastern part of the cemetery. :)

I even met the infamous Highgate Vampire when I visited the Western part 2 years ago... he turned out to be my brother with my stola wrapped around his head. o_O

Seriously creepy. What a visual treat.

brilliant pics, Dave. did you stumble across Karl Marx while you were there?

dave:

I was just in the Western bit, Marx is in the Eastern bit. Next trip!

What fantastic photographs.

Beautiful photos! I wish we had cemeteries like this in the United States.

Stephen Lindley:

I live a stone's throw from the West Cemetery, and visited it a few months ago - one of London's most inspiring and breath-taking spots. It's amazing that it's not better known.

I think it's a shame they don't do night-time tours, perhaps with little lanterns along the paths. - Particularly given their desperate need for funds.

The East Cemetery's also fascinating, but not a patch on the West (though I hear the Russian spy, poisoned with Polonium recently has been buried there - no doubt joining the band of Communists surrounding Marx)

lesley close:

having recently burried one of my best friends ashes in highgate cemetery it was uplifting to see such lovely photos when i felt a bit low, its a shame you didn't get a few snaps of the lake area, it was beautiful!

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on October 5, 2005 7:45 PM.

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