Highgate Cemetery Through Victorian Eyes

Chief Executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust Ian Dungavell delves into the history of Highgate Cemetery.

Many early Victorians found cemeteries rather shocking and modern. Yet the beauty of these sepulchral gardens made them attractive alternatives to the overcrowded urban churchyards.

Highgate Cemetery was one of the most picturesque, its designers working with the natural advantages of the site to create a theatrical goldmine for its private developers. But once full and therefore unprofitable, it began to be appreciated for its ramshackle monuments, rampant ivy and uncontrolled trees which created an atmosphere of 'romantic decay'. A Victorian grave owner would have been appalled.

Using nineteenth-century prints and photographs from archive collections, Ian Dungavell tries to see Highgate Cemetery as the Victorians did.

Ian Dungavell has been Chief Executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust since 2012. He was previously Director of the Victorian Society.