Victorian Values

Source: Speak Up
Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe
Standard: Advanced


Highgate Cemetery is one of London's more original tourist attractions. First opened in 1839, it is probably most famous for housing the grave of Karl Marx, but he is only one of the cemetery's celebrity residents. Others include George Eliot the novelist and Michael Faraday the scientist. Yet more remarkable than the individual people who are buried here is the impressive nature of the graves.

John Shepperd is a member of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery. As he explains, the cemetery reflects the Victorian view of death:

John Shepperd

(Standard British accent):

The average life expectancy of someone born in London in the 1830s was only 35; there were obviously many more deaths of children. So, in many ways, to the Victorians, death was more part of life, in a bizarre way, and obviously with a very heavy religious influence. The Victorians seemed to embrace death and celebrate death in a way which seems perhaps somewhat odd to a more modern audience. And certainly, also for the Victorians, funeral arrangements and burial arrangements were a sign of social status and social prestige. And so the funerals themselves were very elaborate affairs. And then the monuments in which the people were buried, themselves were, in many cases, very elaborate, very ornate and indeed very expensive at the time. And this was a sign of social prestige. The Victorians knew that their neighbours would come and walk places like Highgate Cemetery of a weekend, as a form of recreation, and these large, grandiose monuments would be seen by your neighbours and your social peers. And so it was very much a sign of social status: if you were an eminent middle-class Victorian you buried your family in style and you had monuments which reflected your own social prestige.

A FORGOTTEN CELEBRITY

The graves at Highgate include those of people were ocne famous, but who have now been forgotten. One of the most curious examples is that of Tom Sayers, the champion boxer:

John Shepperd:

Tom Sayers was born in Brighton and was a bricklayer - a tough little man, only a small man, apparently -  and he came to London wehn he was 13. Started fighting other bricklayer and became by the 1950s, the champion English boxer; bare-knucle boxing, illegal, but still very popular, a lot of betting took place. And he was famous in 1860; he fought an American called John Heenan, who came over from New Jersey to fight Sayers for what was effectively the first world championship boxing match. This lasted for 42 rounds, lasted for two-and-a-half hours, and finally, in chaotic scenes, was broken up by the police and the fight was declared a draw. Sayers retire from boxing after that time, that was in 1860, but, unfortunately, was nevr a well man, and died 1865, aged 39. But he was a very famous sportsman, and his funeral in 1865, the route was lined by 100,000 people, lining the way between Camden, where he lived, not far from the cemetery, up to the cemetery itself. So he was a very well-known sportsman and his funeral was said to be the largest in London since the time of Wellington. And on his tomb you see his faithful dog Lion, asleep on his master's grave. 


VISITING THE CEMETERY


The West cemetery is open for guided tours. Tours take place everyday from March - November and weekends only from December - February - tickets 7 pounds for adults and 3 for children aged 8-16.


The East Cemetery can be explored on your own - tickets 3 pounds, under -16s free it accompanied by an adult. To get there, take the Northern Line to Archway or Highgate stations. For full directions and details, visit  http://www.highgate-cemetery.org/ .


HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY


Audrey Niffenegger's best seller, The time Traveler's Wife, was made into a film in 2009; The follow up, Her Fearful Symmetry, for which she was paid a 5 million dollars advance, is set in and around Highgate Cemetery. Although Niffernegger is from Chicago, she spent so much time doing research at Highgate Cemetery that she became a tour guide here!


Other books have also been set in the cemetery, notably Failing Angles by Tracy Chevalier. 

London Gothic

Source: Speak Up

Source of the picture: londonhotelsinsight.com

London Gothic

Visiting Highgate Cemetery is like stepping into another world. Just a few miles from the bustle of central London you can find Egyptian architecture and Gothic atmosphere. Here nature is quietly taking over old tomb stones in the final resting place of the famous and the forgotten.

Among those buried at Highgate are Karl Marx, much of the dickens family, the novelist George Eliot and the scientist Michael Faraday. Novels have been set here and movies have been filmed in the cemetery. If feels like a secret garden with foxes, butterflies and grand old monuments. And Highgate is still a working cemetery, although things have changed since it opened.

London in the 1830s was a stinking, overcrowded place. The population had doubled in a few decades. The dead were buried together in shallow graves between houses. Something had to be done to solve the problem, so seven new cemeteries were built (known as “The Magnificent Seven”). Highgate Cemetery was opened in 1839 on a hillside to the north of the city.

STATUS SYMBOL

With its views over London, Highgate became a fashionable cemetery. The Victorian middle classes buried their dead in style here. The elaborate funerals and expensive monuments were signs of social status and prestige. People strolled around the cemetery on a Sunday afternoon, admiring the beautiful lawns and the grand tombs.

The architecture was impressive. Two chapels were built in the Tutor style, and there were Victorian Gothic and Classical structures. But the centerpiece was the Egyptian Avenue. The avenue led to the Circle of Lebanon – catacombs to hold 825 people around and old Cedar of Lebanon tree.

VAMPIRES!

By the 1860s there were more than 30 burials a day, and the new East Cemetery was opened. But the demand for ornate funeral fell, and a century later the cemetery was overgrown, vandalized and practically forgotten.

Around this time there were reports of a vampire haunting the cemetery. The story became a media sensation, and people broke tombs at night and put garlic in coffins. One of those involved was jailed for damage to the cemetery. But the legend lives on – the movie Highgate Vampire was due for release in 2010, but has been delayed through this year.

LIFE AFTER DEATH

The cemetery closed in 1975, but the Friends of Highgate Cemetery were formed the same year to rescue and preserve this unique space. Their philosophy is “managed neglect” they have restored many of the tombs and monuments, while allowing nature to take over in other areas.

Today, Highgate Cemetery is a beautiful woodland full of wildlife. It is peaceful, enchanting and gothic. People are still buried here, while other come from around the world to visit Karl Marx’s grave. But among the fantastic monuments and family mausoleums, each overgrown gravestone has a story to tell.