Highgate Cemetery: Inside the £20m plan to restore world-famous London cemetery where George Michael and Karl Marx are buried
London’s Highgate Cemetery, the final resting place of the likes of Karl Marx, Lucian Freud and George Michael, has secured a significant donation of £6.7 million to tackle the growing threats posed by climate change.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded the significant sum to the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, the charity responsible for maintaining the historic site.
This funding forms a key part of a wider £19.5 million initiative designed to address the impacts of environmental damage including ash dieback disease, restore neglected areas and increase both public access and community engagement across the cemetery.
This five-year effort marks the first phase of an ambitious 25-year “master plan” dedicated to protecting heritage-rich and nature-filled areas.
One of the main concerns is the increasing severity of winter precipitation, which is further exacerbated by climate change; This is a combination of years of deferred maintenance due to the site’s previous ownership prior to 1975.
Much of the work, such as a new drainage system, will remain largely unseen by visitors, who value its romantic, overgrown appearance as “a place separate from the everyday”, according to Dr Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Foundation.
He said: “This donation is a vote of confidence in plans that will preserve what makes Highgate Cemetery special and open the cemetery to more people while respecting the needs of grave owners.”
The project will improve drainage to reduce waterlogging from heavy rain and collect water for use on site, improve the condition of roads, remove some trees affected by ash dieback disease, creating space for other plants to take over, and enable new, climate-tolerant planting.
There will also be improvements to make the courtyard at the cemetery’s front entrance more accessible, as well as more restrooms and a new “living room” area to host workshops and exhibitions in the Dissenters’ Chapel, which will open at the end of the year.
Conservation works will restore the Grade I-listed Egyptian Avenue and Lebanon Circle, key heritage features of the cemetery, including restoring one of the obelisks that flanks the street’s entrance.
Work to repair the roof of the Grade II* Terrace Catacombs will allow people to climb up and see views of London towards St Paul’s Cathedral for the first time in half a century.
Dr Dungavell said this would allow them to “experience the wonderful contrast between the land of the dead and the reflective landscape at their feet and the land of activity, the land of the living in the distance, which the Victorians thought was a really interesting contrast for people to meditate on.”
He said the project, which still needs around £1 million over five years to cover the £19.5 million cost, would also seek to open up the space in new ways, from reflective walks and work experience placements for mental health to telling more stories about the cemetery and the 170,000 people buried there.
Eilish McGuinness, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “This support from National Lottery players will preserve this nationally important, much-loved cemetery and its monuments for the future, making it a welcoming place of reflection and beauty for everyone who visits.
“It will help increase community engagement by providing more learning, wellbeing and creative activities, and a better visitor experience.
“It will also become a resilient organization with the capacity to care for the cemetery for future generations.”
