Highgate Cemetery is packed – but Parliament has allowed new arrivals to rest in old graves.
The issue of reusing graves is a sensitive subject. But, given the number of people who have ever lived (and died), it’s one that societies have to tackle. For centuries, churchyards accommodated the dead of their parish in a tiny amount of space.
Successive generations were buried on top of one another, with the remains of their predecessors lowered further down into the grave or removed to a charnel house.
It was a sustainable solution until the massive growth in population in the late-18th century. The Victorians responded with the idea of large urban cemeteries offering private family graves where members could be buried together. Rights of burial were granted in perpetuity.
Yet families often proved more mobile and less keen on maintaining a single burial place than anticipated, and many graves have been simply forgotten altogether by descendants. Do you know where all your grandparents, great uncles and aunts are buried?
One of London’s most prestigious cemeteries is now embarking on a programme of grave renewal.
Highgate Cemetery was opened in 1839 as part of a plan for private companies to create a ring of cemeteries around London. Notable Victorians buried there include Michael Faraday, George Eliot and Karl Marx. More recently Beryl Bainbridge, Jacob Bronowski and Jonathan Miller have been interred there.
Highgate Cemetery now has 53,000 graves, with 170,000 people buried there. It is still a working cemetery, with approximately 50 burials a year.
For it to continue to offer itself as a sustainable place to accommodate future burials, it needs to find more space.
Other old cemeteries have closed to new burials, and have begun to lose the connections to people living around them. Highgate wants to avoid that.
A renewal plan was submitted for approval to the government, following which a new Act of Parliament, the Highgate Cemetery Act 2022, was enacted. The scheme is not for a wholesale removal of remains but rather for a sensitive renewal of graves no longer wanted by their owners, carried out with the greatest respect for them and those buried in the cemetery. Such things are not done lightly.
These powers are not unprecedented. They are already available to other cemeteries, including those owned by local authorities.
Within the consecrated part of Highgate Cemetery, any disturbance of remains is subject to authorisation from the Diocese of London.
Still, the Church of England takes a realistic approach to the problem. The Chancellor of Southwark Diocese has stated that ‘there should be an expectation that grave spaces will in due course be reused, and this is necessary to economise on land use at a time when grave space is a diminishing resource.’
Initially, around 500 graves have been identified at Highgate for renewal. Only long-abandoned graves are considered. Often plots were bought by a family but then not used. Work is done piecemeal and sensitively. It is not a comprehensive redevelopment of the cemetery.
Strong safeguards exist for grave-owners. Graves must have been last used over 75 years ago; or, if the grave is empty, been sold more than 75 years ago. The cemetery first tries to contact the owner by writing to them at the address in the grave register. Notices are also placed in the Times; on the cemetery website; at the cemetery entrance; and on or near the grave itself. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Historic England are also notified. A positive outcome of this recent publicity is the number of people now contacting the cemetery to take ownership of long-forgotten family graves. If you think you may have a family grave in Highgate Cemetery, please look at the list on our website (www.highgatecemetery.org).
New burials will be made in empty graves, on top of part-used graves or in space created by lifting and reinterring earlier remains at greater depth. Relatives can always prevent the disturbance of any remains.
Heritage protections are also strong. No significant gravestones or memorials (which make Highgate Cemetery such a special place) will be removed. Priority graves for renewal are those with no memorial, or where the memorial is extensively damaged. Records will be made of any removed memorial and deposited with the Registrar General.
Careful implementation of the act will help preserve the character, heritage and memorial significance of the cemetery, while allowing it to continue as a valued place of burial for future generations.
Visitors are also very welcome at the cemetery – open every day except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. It is now very popular among domestic and foreign visitors. Excellent guided tours are available – or you can explore by yourself. There are also lots of opportunities to volunteer – including guiding, helping visitors and gardening.
This cemetery is a place for the dead and a museum of people – and it is also full of life.
Liz Thompson is a volunteer tour guide at Highgate Cemetery
