Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a cemetery in 1839 eröffneter in today's Camden the British capital London. He is one of the Magnificent Seven, a number of cemeteries that were created within ten years around London. In Highgate Cemetery many exiles are buried, such as the German philosopher Karl Marx.
History
In the 19th century the funeral opportunities within London were exhausted, the Parliament granted from 1832 private entrepreneurs in the necessary rights in order to establish a total of seven commercial cemeteries in the then rural London suburbs. The architect Stephen Geary then founded 1836, the London Cemetery Company. The company acquired a located on a slope of the then village of Highgate area, west of the Swain Lane. Within the next three years the site in collaboration with the garden designer David Ramsey and the surveyor James Bunstone was equipped with exotic plantings and architectural features to be known as the most modern cemetery of the Victorian era. After its opening in May 1839, the cemetery gained increasing popularity. As hoped, it was mainly well-off families who bought on the high-altitude burial place large grave sites, which could make it complex and monumental.
The number of burials increased steadily, so that the London Cemetery Company after almost twenty years, the opposite, east of Swain Lane location, terrain acquired. 1856 East Cemetery was opened, with 20 acres ( approximately 7.5 hectares ) is slightly larger than those that west side with 17 acres. The first burial took place on the east side but not take place until four years after opening. On the west side until then had about 10,400 grave sites available, some days were up to thirty funerals instead. Below the Swain Lane was a tunnel through which the coffins were transferred from the chapel on the west side to the east side. The hydraulic lift used for it was housed in an extension of the chapel.
However, the beginning of the 20th century was characterized from a fall. The funeral culture changed, cremations increased; for burials smaller grave sites were always acquired, their design turned out now much simpler. Although many wealthy families had secured the rights to certain grave sites on time, but many graves were abandoned because the owners moved away, were left without descendants or those prematurely, also due to the two world wars, lost. With the sale of cheaper, ordinary graves, the cemetery company achieved no longer sufficient income to keep the premises reasonably repaired. 1960 had the London Cemetery Company to file for bankruptcy, they went afterwards on in the United Cemetery Company. The significantly larger companies was also overwhelmed with the maintenance of Highgate Cemetery but so that the cemetery had to close its doors.
Only in 1975 was marked by the founding a funding a turn off. The Friends of Highgate Cemetery ( FOHC ) bought in the late seventies of the 20th century, the art-historically interesting Western Burial Ground and delivered it, so before leveling by bulldozers. Finally, in 1981 there were two parts in full possession of FOHC. In order to support the maintenance of the cemetery, the visit is chargeable. The eastern cemetery is open daily, the western part can be visited by appointment only with a guide.
In the meantime, visit Highgate Cemetery again instead of burials. Approximately 30 to 35 times in a grave site is sold; However, the buyer must meet certain requirements.
The plant
Located in North London cemetery consists of the older western and the eastern part of something larger, which are separated by a public road. Highgate West is governed by numerous mausoleums, next offered also large catacombs as the Terrace Catacombs, room for 825 coffins. Two chapels, one housed for members of the British official church, the others are for members of other faith communities in the western part of the same building. The dominant architectural style is the the then prevailing taste corresponding Gothic Revival, besides also much examples of historicism and classicism can be seen. The complete apparatus is kept in a register of state historic preservation English Heritage as a Park of historical interest and international importance.
Graves of famous people
- Douglas Adams, writer
- Lucian Freud
- Radclyffe Hall, author
- Claudia Jones, Jamaican activist
- Herman Lieberman, Polish politician
- Alexander Litvinenko, vice arrived at a polonium poisoning under mysterious circumstances, former Russian secret agent
- Malcolm McLaren
- Ralph Miliband, a Marxist
Among the most famous tombs of the cemetery which is owned by Karl Marx on the eastern cemetery, which was buried here on 17 March 1883. In the grave, his wife Jenny Marx, Helen Demuth, and the daughter Eleanor Marx rest. His original modest tomb was renewed in 1956 by the Communist Party of Great Britain. It shows a portrait bust by Laurence Bradshaw and the words " WORKERS OF ALL LANDS UNITE " ( Workers of all countries, unite ) from the Communist Manifesto and the 11th Thesis on Feuerbach: "THE PHILOSOPHERS HAVE ONLY INTERPRETED THE WORLD IN VARIOUS WAYS - THE HOWEVER POINT iS tO cHANGE iT " ( the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; depends, to change it ).
In the 1970s there was a vain attempt to destroy the monument using a homemade bomb.