Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Highgate Cemetery - Major Development planning application
Though Highgate Cemetery isn’t in Harringay and not even in Haringey many HoL readers will have visited and so might be interested in its future development.
In the Ham & High 12 December there is a notice of a Camden Council planning application from Highgate Cemetery (below). It is categorised as being a “Major Development” and the proposed work is quite extensive and involves:
"Restoration, conservation, demolition and replacement of buildings in East Side and West Side of Highgate Cemetery, including erection of a gardener’s building on the East Side, erection of visitor and operations building and relocation of Perkins monument on the West Side, Cemetery wide landscaping, drainage, public realm, access works and repair of mausolea, to support the function of a working cemetery, visitor and community uses” (Application form - Description of the Proposal)
Quite a number of different pieces of work all lumped together in one application.
The application Planning Statement states that
“This Application is an exciting and important opportunity to deliver a 25-year masterplan to secure the long-term future of the Cemetery”
And to support the application there are approximately 145 documents - 145! It’s going to take ages to go through all these documents to figure out what is proposed and perhaps seek advice on how to interpret them.
A good example of the problem is the proposal to relocate the Perkins monument. Which of the 145 documents deals with this, I have no idea.
The closing date for comments is 5 January though comments can still be submitted until such time as the Council makes its decision - a bit confusing.
A 25 year master plan but only a very short period for the public consultation - 2024/5407/P
To see the 145 documents click on the blue text "Highgate Cemetery Swain's Lane London N6 6PJ (2024/5407/P)” then click on “View drawings - 2024/5423/L
Tags for Forum Posts: camden planning, cemetery, highgate cemetery
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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Thanks Konrad, I am a 'grave owner' as my husband's ashes are buried in the West Cemetery, so this is interesting - I have not heard anything about it from the cemetery, which is surprising. It seems a lot of the documents refer to a single grave/mausoleum, of which many are in dire need of repair and some frankly unsafe.
In recent years there seem to have been more areas opened up to burials, presumably to bring in an income.
Hopefully the character of the place will not be changed by these plans, although the works themselves will cause substantial disruption by the sound of it.
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Permalink Reply by Giovanna iozzi on
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I am horrified by the work that the cemetary has already done, felling many mature trees and last year they were felling huge trees at nesting time. Park of the magnificence of the cemetary is its messiness, graves and nature merging. They're trying to sanitise and tidy it up, not good for nature at all. Awful, needs a campaigning voice against it. No doubt more trees will be going.
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Permalink Reply by Betty Careless
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Many of the mausolea are listed because of their architectural, historical and social significance so there does need to be a balance between looking after nature and the upkeep of the monuments. I agree that the cemetery's wildness is part of it's charm but it would be a huge loss if the trees were allowed to threaten them. I understand I'm probably in the minority being more interested in funerary monuments than trees, but London has loads of green spaces so it seems a shame to allow nature to completely swallow up our history here!
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