Highgate Cemetery has revealed plans for a massive £18 million makeover

Highgate Cemetery is one of London’s most beautiful, and mysterious, places. The Victorian burial ground, built in 1839, is full of grand and overgrown gravestones, and is the final resting place of Karl Marx and George Michael. After falling into disrepair in the ’70s, Highgate was taken into the hands of The Friends of Highgate Cemetery. Now, the graveyard is set to get a £18 million renovation. 

The Friends of Highgate said the makeover would make sure the cemetery would not ‘crumble away’. While much of Highgate Cemetery’s appeal comes from its tumbledown nature, the charity's chief executive Dr Ian Dungavell promised the changes would not detract from the ‘romantic decay’ of the graveyard. The Grade II-listed catacombs will be protected too. 

If planning is approved by Camden Council, the first phase of works will take place over a five-year period, improving drainage – which the charity described as a ‘nightmare’ currently – on the site and providing a new gardeners’ building.

New planting will also increase the variety of species in the cemetery that are more resilient to climate change. The plans also involve building more women’s toilets and improving facilities. 

‘The planning application is an overall vision for the next 25 years,’ Dr Dungavell told Ham & High. ‘Not all of it is going to happen as soon as we have planning consent. At the moment, we have nowhere near enough money to do it all, but it gives a direction of travel.

‘I do want to manage people’s expectations, because there is not going to be an instant difference overnight.’

The majority of the upgrade is expected to be paid for by the charity’s fund, with the hope that the rest will be provided by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

ICYMI: This London pub is introducing ‘Guinness Ration Cards’.