Many, many places have I loved in London, but Highgate Cemetery has a special place in my heart. Construction began on this Victorian burial ground in 1839, when the city had long outgrown real estate for the dead. Only the very wealthy afforded tombs and mausoleums there. Tourists today can seek out the graves of some very famous dead, like Karl Marx and Charles Dickens. But in my book, the cemetery is most impressive because of its plant life and exquisite architecture.
With the wildlife, much of the trees and shrubbery entered in the cemetery uninvited, and over the last two centuries Highgate has become noted for cultivating rare species. This is especially true for the section called the West Cemetery. You must book a tour to see this particular part of Highgate, but it is well worth the trouble IMHO.
Some of the architectural elements in the West Cemetery include “Egyptian Avenue” and the “Circle of Lebanon,” both shown here (the Circle used to be called the “Cedar of Lebanon” for a tree featured here that had to be cut down in 2019). Both of these areas take their queue from Ancient Egyptian tombs, and speak to the ardent popularity of Ancient Egyptian funerary monuments in the Victorian period.
Source(s): @historicengland.org.uk, “The Egyptian Avenue and Lebanon Circle (Inner and Outer Circles), Highgate Cemetery. Wikipedia. Image of Cedar of Lebanon from Christine Phillips.
