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Don’t panic: nobody is going to dig up Karl Marx.
Highgate Cemetery is going to get a radical makeover, but it’s worth stressing now that it’s going to be foliage-based rather than involve any actual desecration.
Long-story-short: hundreds of trees are going to be chopped down on the grounds of London’s most romantic final resting place, opening up spectacular views over London. No doubt there will be those who think this is a terribly basic move that will take away some of the cemetery’s overgrown allure. But the revamp is inspired by nineteenth-century paintings of the cemetery that show it did indeed once boast a clear view out over London. Also at the risk of being reductive, the trees being chopped down are bad trees – nothing ancient will get the chop, just the many spindly, unmanaged ash trees that have crept in during recent decades, some of them actively threatening historical graves.
Carried out by landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman, the overhaul of the grounds will be combined with work from Hopkins Architects on the site’s buildings to generally enhance the cemetery, to make it more environmentally sound and to better equip it to continue as a working cemetery that’s also a top tourist attraction.