Frank Matcham's grave in the Eastern Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery
Swain's Lane, North London
Matcham was a prominent architect of theaters.
Other Views of the Cemetery
Photograph and text by Jacqueline Banerjee
Across from the Western Cemetery, the other side of Swain's Lane, lies an extension opened in 1857, which is known as the Eastern Cemetery. A tunnel, complete with a hydraulic system for lowering the coffins down, was built from the chapels to the new annexe, in order to avoid taking them across the road thronged with funeral carriages and crowds of mourners and visitors. The Eastern Cemetery is a more natural, even woodland, area, open for visitors to walk around by themselves. Here too are the graves of many distinguished Victorians, such as George Eliot, G. H. Lewes, Herbert Spencer, Frank Matcham (the architect of many London theatres, including the London Coliseum) and Sir Leslie Stephen. Perhaps the most famous grave of all is that of Karl Marx, though the celebrated edifice surmounted by Marx's head dates only from the mid-1950s, when his grave was moved from a more obscure spot in the cemetery.
Sources
"The Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon." The Highgate Cemetery website. Viewed 3 April 2008.
Friends of Highgate Cemetery. "Notes on Some of the Many Eminent People Buried in the Eastern Cemetery, Highgate." Available at the Cemetery Office.
Friends of Highgate Cemetery. "Notes on Some of the Many Eminent People Buried in the Western Cemetery, Highgate." Available at the Cemetery Office.
Pearson, Lynn F. Discovering Famous Graves. Princes Risborough, Bucks: Shire, 1998.
Weinreb, Ben and Christopher Hibbert. The London Encyclopaedia. London: Macmillan, rev. ed. 1992.
Last modified 3 April 2008