Highgate Cemetery launches £18m conservation project

Highgate Cemetery has launched ‘Unlocking Highgate Cemetery’ after it received £18m from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

The seven-year, £18m project will ensure that the cemetery “remains an active burial ground and a vital sanctuary for heritage, nature and community”. 

For almost two centuries, people have enjoyed the architecture and paths of Highgate Cemetery’s funerary landscape. However, time and climate change have exposed “the fragility of the historic structures”, as access to some areas is now difficult or closed. 

The lottery fund will help the sympathetic conservation of the Grade I-listed Egyptian Avenue and Grade II-listed Terrace Catacombs, restoring access to expansive views of London and reopening the grand West Carriage Drive. 

As part of the project, Highgate Cemetery will also open the Dissenters’ Chapel as a public space to explore 200 years of human stories.

The fund will also aid the removal of dangerous and diseased trees, restoring biodiversity with climate-resilient planting and improved drainage. Above all, it will protect the special character of Highgate Cemetery, “where nature is inextricably entwined with stone”.

As part of ‘Unlocking Highgate Cemetery’, friends of the cemetery will partner with local organisations to develop oracy skills for school groups, vocational training in landscape management, as well as free online learning resources on universal themes such as grief, memory or celebrity.