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Highgate Cemetery: London's Necropolis
- Response to Public Health Crisis: Highgate Cemetery was conceived in the 1830s due to a "dire public health crisis" caused by "overcrowded urban burial grounds." The rapid population growth in London during the Industrial Revolution led to crammed and unsanitary churchyard cemeteries.
- Part of the "Magnificent Seven": Parliament passed legislation starting in 1832 to encourage and authorize new, privately-run cemeteries on the city's outskirts. Highgate Cemetery is one of these original "Magnificent Seven," opened in 1839 by the London Cemetery Company as a "profit-making venture."
- Fashionable Burial Ground: Perched on a hill, Highgate Cemetery quickly became a "fashionable place for burials" and was "much admired and visited" by Victorians who had a romantic attitude toward death. Its design, with "labyrinth of Egyptian sepulchres and a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings," contributed to its allure.
- Expansion: The original, older section is known as the Western part, consecrated on May 20, 1839. The first burial was of Elizabeth Jackson on May 26, 1839. In 1854, the Eastern part of the cemetery was opened across Swain's Lane.
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By Gregory- Response to Public Health Crisis: Highgate Cemetery was conceived in the 1830s due to a "dire public health crisis" caused by "overcrowded urban burial grounds." The rapid population growth in London during the Industrial Revolution led to crammed and unsanitary churchyard cemeteries.
- Part of the "Magnificent Seven": Parliament passed legislation starting in 1832 to encourage and authorize new, privately-run cemeteries on the city's outskirts. Highgate Cemetery is one of these original "Magnificent Seven," opened in 1839 by the London Cemetery Company as a "profit-making venture."
- Fashionable Burial Ground: Perched on a hill, Highgate Cemetery quickly became a "fashionable place for burials" and was "much admired and visited" by Victorians who had a romantic attitude toward death. Its design, with "labyrinth of Egyptian sepulchres and a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings," contributed to its allure.
- Expansion: The original, older section is known as the Western part, consecrated on May 20, 1839. The first burial was of Elizabeth Jackson on May 26, 1839. In 1854, the Eastern part of the cemetery was opened across Swain's Lane.