Camden Council approved plans on Monday (November 3) to overhaul Highgate Cemetery as part of a 25-year “revitalisation” project to combat decay, restore existing structures and construct new buildings.
One of capital’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries, the overgrown oasis near Hampstead Heath has long served as an attraction for tourists visiting the final resting places of famous figures like Karl Marx and George Michael.
But Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust plans for a new toilet block and gardener’s facilities near many graves sparked a furious backlash earlier this year.
Families of those buried there were staunchly opposed to the building, which had been likened to a “bunker”.
Many voiced discomfort that toilets would be next to the graves of their loved ones, and complained that cemetery bosses were not listening to them and prioritising tourists instead.
Dozens of objectors, including Jeremy Corbyn, wrote to the trust urging them to rethink the proposals. Pam Miles, the widow of actor Tim Pigott-Smith, warned she would exhume the remains of her husband and demand the cemetery pay the costs.
In August, the cemetery bosses axed the controversial block from the redevelopment. In a letter to grave owners, Ian Dungavell, the trust’s chief executive, said it had “listened carefully to the views of grave owners” and removed the gardener’s buildings from its current application.
The trust had already admitted to failures during its consultations, which led to tense meetings between grave owners and managers and architects. But at Monday’s meeting, objectors raised their suspicions that the axing of the building did not rule out future plans for something similar.
Grave owner Amir Sanei, an architect, had earlier written to trustees about concerns that the decision to drop the most controversial part of the proposals was a merely a “ploy” to secure funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In 2024 the project had been awarded £105,000.
The objectors asked Camden’s planning committee to state they would not consider any applications for gardening facilities on the mound in future, but the panel declined. Cabinet member for planning and sustainable Camden Cllr Adam Harrison said it was “not in our gift” to do so.
The revamp plans include extensive landscaping works across the Grade I-listed cemetery, a new café and education centre, the refurbishment of the existing chapel and the creation of new wildlife habitats. In the meantime, Highgate’s gardener’s facilities – currently run from two deteriorating shipping containers – are set to be replaced by similar structures.
The project also aims to conserve the Grade I-listed Egyptian Avenue and Grade II-listed Terrace Catacombs, restoring access to views of London and reopening the grand West Carriage Drive.
Trees deemed dangerous or diseased will be removed from the cemetery in a bid to restore biodiversity.
Highgate opened in 1839. Its 53,000 plots include many celebrated individuals, leading to it being dubbed the ‘celebrity cemetery’. Interred there are the painter Lucian Freud, novelist George Eliot, scientist Michael Faraday, and Russian dissident and spy Alexander Litvinenko.
