Highgate West Cemetery

Saturday, February 1, 2020:

Today Eddie and I had lunch in Brick Lane at The Canvas Café.  Eddie had the "full English breakfast" with tofu scramble.   I had the "tofish and chips" with handmade tartar sauce.

The Canvas Cafe

In the late afternoon we took a guided tour of Highgate West Cemetery in North London where we viewed some remarkable funerary architecture.  This cemetery was dedicated by the Lord Bishop of London in 1839 at a time when Victorians were fascinated with all things Egyptian, as a result of the Napoleonic Wars in Egypt & Syria. In Victorian days the cemetery was meticulously maintained, all the white marble gleaming.  Today, the cemetery is overgrown with ivy and most of the headstones are aslant and having lost their luster; however, that has created another type of beauty.

For me the most interesting architecture in the cemetery are the Egyptian Avenue, with its entrance flanked by two large obelisks, and the Circle of Lebanon. Nearby is the Terrace Catacombs where we viewed Victorian coffins in recesses in the walls.

Entrance to The Egyptian Avenue

The Circle of Lebanon

Victorian Coffins inside the Terrace Catacombs

Inside the Terrace Catacombs

A Broken Column Symbolizing a Life Cut Short