Highgate, Hampstead

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Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West Cemetery and the East Cemetery at Highgate Cemetery. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London.

The "Magnificent Seven" is an informal term applied to seven large private cemeteries in London. They were established in the 19th century to alleviate overcrowding in existing parish burial grounds. Highgate cemetery in its original form—the northwestern wooded area—opened in 1839, as part of a plan to provide the seven large, modern cemeteries around the outside of central London. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards attached to individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead. The initial design was by architect and entrepreneur Stephen Geary. The first burial was Elizabeth Jackson of Little Windmill Street, Soho, on 26 May.

Highgate, like the others of the Magnificent Seven, soon became a fashionable place for burials and was much admired and visited. The Victorian attitude to death and its presentation led to the creation of a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings. It occupies a spectacular south-facing hillside site slightly downhill from the top of the hill of Highgate itself, next to Waterlow Park. In 1854 the area to the east of the original area across Swains Lane was bought to form the eastern part of the cemetery. Both the cemeteries are still used today for burials, but these areas are closed to the public. Most of the open unforested area in the East Cemetery still has fairly few graves on it.

The cemetery's grounds are full of trees, shrubbery and wildflowers, most of which have been planted and grown without human influence. The grounds are a haven for birds and small animals such as foxes.

Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people interred there as well as for its de facto status as a nature reserve. Karl Marx is buried in the East Cemetery. Highgate Cemetery is designated Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highgate_Cemetery .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnificent_Seven_cemeteries .
https://highgatecemetery.org/visit/cemetery/east .
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Highgate-Cemetery/ .
​https://highgatecemetery.org/ .​