Above: Egyptian Avenue photograph by Caroline Markham

‘A super day’ weather-wise as we travelled to Hampstead and Highgate, the first Society outing since September 2019 (which had been to Buckingham Palace).

After meeting our excellent guide, Gail, and coffee, first to Church Row, Hampstead and the 1745 church of St John’s by John Sanderson with later additions. In the graveyard lie John Constable, Nicholas Parsons, Kay Kendall and Hugh Gaitskell. Also, among others, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree who had an interesting funeral when his family discovered his other ‘unknown’ family, the Reeds, which included film director Sir Carol Reed (‘Oliver’) and actor Oliver Reed. Church Row is Hampstead’s greatest architectural treasure. Residents have included Gracie Fields, H.G. Wells, Wilkie Collins, Moira Shearer and her husband Ludovic Kennedy. The underground station in Hampstead is the deepest in London.

After the short journey to Highgate our party of 27 split into groups with two knowledgeable volunteer guides. The original west cemetery, built in 1839 was reopened in the 1970s and is now run by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust. It was one of eight cemeteries opened around London when church graveyards reached their capacity. The west cemetery has the impressive Egyptian Avenue, Lebanon Circle and Terrace Catacombs. Famous inhabitants include Beryl Bainbridge, Michael Faraday, George Michael, Alexander Litvinenko and Patrick Wymark. The east cemetery across the road contains the remains of such diverse people as Karl Marx and Max Wall, great train robber Bruce Reynolds and ‘Trigger’ Roger Lloyd Pack. Also there, the grave of Richard ‘Stoney’ Smith, the miller who patented the Hovis (from the Latin Homos Vis: ‘force of humankind’) high wheat germ flour process.

A super day indeed, one of the best visits and grateful thanks to Caroline Markham.

Colin Mayes

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