Highgate Cemetery

Can you believe that until a couple of weeks ago I had never been to Highgate Cemetery? I'm pretty sure that back in the day the Kool Kids went there to get stoned appreciate the calm, spiritual atmosphere. I used to live about a mile or so from it, on the other side of Waterlow Park, for heaven's sake.

There are East and West Sides of the Cemetery. The East side is well-kept and mostly 20th-century, overwhelmingly of arty-types, scientists and the big statue of some bloke with a beard, but much more importantly, this guy...

The West Side is mostly pre-WW2, with some modern exceptions, one of whom is Alexander Litvenenko. It's a very different experience. Those sepulchres and tombs...

The tombs, the massive headstones and statues. Family gravestones with parents who lived to be 60+, one child who died at 25, and two who died before they were 5. Mostly solid, middle-class merchants, judging by the size of their statues and tombs. And all were clearly designed to be visited. Like this site

I didn't think people did that anymore. Visiting and maintaining graves feels like something out of an earlier age. Our family cremates. All of the fumerals I've been to have been cremations. But some still want to remember and visit the dead.