Exploring the Highgate Cemetery and Village

Continuing our resolution to explore more of London than our little corner out West, we headed North to the Village like suburb of Highgate.

Highgate is one of the most expensive areas of London to live in and is full of amazing huge houses all lining lots of private streets which regular people like us have to keep out of.

Highgate used to be a separate village until the Victorian times when it was integrated to be part of London. It still feels like you are miles away from London, but from the Village you can see the City skyline in the distance.

It is also just a short walk from Hampstead Heath, one of London's largest parks where we have been several times over the last few years, so decided not to visit on this occasion.

Our first stop once we got to Highgate Village after the long uphill walk from Archway station, was at the lovely High Tea of Highgate. The shop  was like an Old English tea room, with lots of teas on offer plus scones, cakes and toasted sandwiches.

The crockery used was really pretty, all mismatched, and we loved the cow milk jug!

Bradley and I both ordered cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches, though he went for the Queen's Tea and I had peppermint. Everything we had was so delicious, and we still found room at the end for some Lavender Sponge cake. 

I've never had anything made with Lavender, but it was so yummy and had little bits of Lavender sprinkled on top of the icing.

Sufficiently stuffed full of cake and tea, we went for a long walk through  Highgate Village and the surrounding streets, heading towards Highgate Cemetery.

The Cemetery is divided into two parts, the East and West Cemeteries. The East Cemetery is £4 each to enter and anyone can enter and explore, whereas the West Cemetery is £12 to enter and you can only explore as part of a guided tour. We decided to visit the East Cemetery only as we're not fan's of guided tours.

The Cemetery was opened in 1839 and is the burial place of many famous people including Karl Marx and Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy.

The Cemetery was in a terrible decline by the 1970's so the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust was set-up and they acquired the freehold of both Cemeteries. They fully restored the grounds and repaired some of the Memorials that had been destroyed by vandals. 

They are now responsible for the running and maintenance of the Cemeteries and all proceeds go directly back into the Cemetery with no profit.

An appropriate headstone for Douglas Adams

This is not actually the burial place of Karl Marx, this is further into the Cemetery, however this huge monument was built in 1954. There was an attempt to bomb this monument in the 1970's, but luckily this proved unsuccessful.

Exploring the tiny walkways throughout the Cemetery

The East Cemetery was pretty empty on a sunny Sunday afternoon and we found that exploring the tiny walkways throughout the Cemetery off the main path made it seem like we were the only ones there.

We spent hours wandering around and reading the headstones, it was sad to read the headstones of so many children who had died so young.

As we were walking along a little path, we saw a fox run across into the forest, and though we tried hard to find it, it disappeared into the undergrowth. I still get excited when I see English wildlife like Foxes and Squirrels.

No luck with fox hunting

The London Fire Brigade Memorial, dedicated to Fire-Fighters who served and died during the Air Battle of London in World War II. There are also plaques surrounding the memorial of other Fire-Fighters who have died in the years since then.

The grave of Patrick Caulfield, an English painter famous for canvasses. He designed his headstone himself and was definitely the most interesting headstone in the East Cemetery.

Born in New Zealand!