Of Grave Concern.

The last couple of days have been a real treat.  Yesterday we visited to Highgate Cemetery where we were simply awed by the shear grandeur and style of the place.  The east side is the “poor relation” of the two parts but still has some very interesting resting places.

This recent grave has a certain humorous finality about it.

This one contains Jeremy Beadle’s remains.

Malcolm McLaren lies here.

Someone’s last recital perhaps?

Karl Marx, of course, occupies the most famous plot in the east cemetery.

You can only go round the west cemetery on a guided tour at a cost of £12 – and it’s worth every penny.  It’s the oldest part and contains some of the the most striking and spectacular tombs and vaults.

The cost of some monuments have been extraordinary, but then it was very much the thing in Victorian times to show your place in society and your respect for the departed.

We had a tour of the catacombs which held the coffins on shelves.  We could see many of the coffins in various degrees of decay. The wooden outer layers giving way to show the lead coffin inside.  Some were very grand leather covered affairs.  We were forbidden to take photos in this area, very sadly.

We went into more vaults and catacombs, this circular area was crowned by a 300 year old Cedar of Lebanon tree (growing well before the cemetery was built.

There are over 52,000 graves at Highgate, some were badly vandalised in the 1970’s, but a lot have been repaired.

This Egyptian area was all the rage during the mid 1800’s but very quickly lost favour and not all plots were sold.

There is a lot of restoration being undertaken – some of it requiring heavy lifting equipment.

Well,the rain held off and we were delighted with our afternoon with the dead.  The tour was incredibly informative and interesting, with so many funny and sad stories behind the burials.  Highly recommended!

Today we accompanied Sue and Richard on nb ‘Indigo Dream’, helping them down from Paddington Basin to their moorings in Limehouse.

We started in wonderful sunshine and leaving Little Venice the autumn colours are looking terrific.

Passing through Regents Park, some of the residences are very imposing.

This is the Snowdon Avery at London Zoo as we pass through it.

Camden Market was busy as usual as we negotiate the three locks. there.

At 3 o’ clock, just as forecast, the rain started, and it was heavy!

But it didn’t dampen our spirits and, as we approached the end of our journey, we could see the massive Canary Wharf dominating the skyline.

Safely arriving at Limehouse Marina we relaxed and partook in more ‘Indigo Dream’ hospitality – which, as per normal, had been continually forthcoming throughout the whole trip.  We thoroughly enjoyed being with Sue and Richard – a great pleasure as always.