Highgate Cemetery: Hunting for Vampires & Forgotten Graves in London's Classic Victorian Cemetery

thanks dollar shave club for sponsoring this video go to dollarshaveclub.com forward slash geographics to get your starter set for just five dollars a spectre is haunting europe this is how a german author buried in london opened one of his best-known works it was a metaphor for the political movement that he championed but little did he know that an actual spectre would actually haunt his final resting place welcome to today's geographic destination highgate cemetery in north london it's a reputedly haunted historic graveyard at least that's according to the sacred words of the honorable sir google maps and the allegedly supernatural history goes even deeper than that in the 1960s and 1970s this historic burial site was the backdrop to a rivalry between two self-fashioned vampire hunters who stalked an undead creature supposedly sighted on the grounds but before we get to that bit of london history we can learn how highgate cemetery was first founded and developed and will pay our respects to some of its more interesting residents [Music] the story of highgate cemetery begins in the 1830s when the victorian parliament was facing a crisis in london there were too many dead people and not enough land to bury them parliament extended permission for seven large privately owned cemeteries to be developed on the outskirts of london companies owning the graveyards could charge citizens for a burial plot and with that a new business was born in 1836 architect and civil engineer stephen geary smelled the opportunity for both big profits and formaldehyde so he founded the london cemetery company that same year he acquired a 17-acre plot on the grounds of ashes manor north of central london and just east of hampstead heath over the course of three years geary designed planned and built the cemetery with the help of architect james bunstone bunning the two british pals followed a template borrowed from their french frenemies the pear leche in paris the graveyard would provide resting places ranging from simple plots to terraced chapels and monumental tombs all to suit the finances of a broad spectrum of clients the grounds would also be graced with landscaped gardens allowing residents of the area to take peaceful strolls on sundays but more importantly gary and bunning decided that their cemetery would be non-denominational so not linked to a specific religion they designed two large chapels to conduct anglican funeral rides sure but they also set aside two acres of unhallowed ground reserved for those of different faiths st james's cemetery at highgate best known simply as highgate was consecrated and officially opened in may of 1839 by the bishop of london just as predicted by geary and bunning highgate was an immediate success not just as a burial ground but also as a scenic place to promenade and enjoy the views over london early visitors admired the monumental features built by the london cemetery company including the entrance gates graced by a colonnade and two large chapels or the egyptian avenue accessed via an arched gate and flanked by columns and obelisks the egyptian avenue led to the lebanon circle circular porticus in the egyptian style lined with tombs on each side which surrounded a massive cedar of lebanon a tree older than the cemetery itself another popular feature was the terrace catacombs which offered burials ranging in price from 10 pounds to 94 pounds that's approximately a thousand to 9 800 pounds in today's money the high end more elaborate spots were of course reserved for wealthy victorian elites but a middle-class individual could purchase a plot for about 14 pounds there were even cheaper sites that could cost as little as five pounds put this into context the average wage of lower-class londoners in the 1830s was often just one pound a year business thrived nonetheless and in 1854 geary and his company had to purchase more land the cemetery doubled in size extending to the east of swain's lane with the main street cutting through the cemetery the eastern half of the cemetery was connected to the west by an underground passage below swain's lane allowing for coffins to be ferried from the western chapel to the burial places in the east in a discreet manner without ever having to leave hallowed ground carrying the coffins downstairs to the tunnels was quite a tiresome task so the ingenious geary expanded the chapel to fit in a hydraulic elevator by 1860 the cemetery's grounds had expanded to 37 acres by 1888 he could count 25 000 graves containing an average of four bodies each however 1860 was the beginning of a very long and drawn out end for london's most famous cemetery this is when parliament legalized cremation a practice which slowly began eroding the cemetery company's profits a volatile global situation did its best to provide business to the company by kindly unleashing world wars and pandemics to fill up every last unused plot nonetheless in the years after world war ii the company had to lay off many of highgate's groundskeepers to contain its costs over the same period the number of visitors looking after their relatives graves naturally started to dwindle as a result brambles weeds and sycamores crept over the carefully manicured stone and gravel claiming the ground as their own in the 1960s highgate had become disheveled it was overgrown and largely abandoned the gloomy atmosphere attracted many unwanted visitors who made the situation even worse but we'll get to them later first let's look at what is considered to be highgate's main attraction it's individual graves more than 170 000 people are buried in more than 53 thousand graves 850 of them considered notable celebrities buried here include douglas adams author of hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy novelist george eliot punk rock and rosario malcolm mclaren scientist michael faraday and sculptor anamala as much as i'd like to describe 850 tombs in the longest geographics video ever made today's video will instead profile a handful of the absolutely most peculiar but just before we get to all that it's time for a quick word from today's sponsor dollar shave club dollar shave club are the guys that cover all of your grooming needs shower oral care deodorant and shaving naturally shaving that makes sense it's called dollar shave club now i don't shave my beard obviously but i do shave my head and that process has become so much easier and frankly more pleasant since i switched to dollar shave club and started using their high quality blades dollar shave club sent me their ultimate shave starter set razor and uh blades of course and this is their razor with the sleek black matte hands i don't can see that it's uh it's very nice there'll be some b-roll here showing how nice this thing looks there's a four blade all-terrain option or six blades for extra close i went for six blades because i like it close shave there's also these great one ounce bottles that come with the set i've 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ships full size products at the regular price and now let's talk about some more dead people the largest and grandest of all private resting places at highgate is the mausoleum of julius beer completed in 1878 by italian craftsmen under the direction of architect john aldridge scott a jewish immigrant from frankfurt beer had risen from poverty making a fortune on the london stock exchange in 1870 he became a newspaper magnate after buying the observer but was still ostracized by victorian society which may explain why he decided to leave such a grand legacy behind a final abode inspired by one of the seven wonders of the ancient world king mausolus's tomb at telekinesis the interior of the monument was instead inspired by the renaissance and in particular by the italian style in vogue in the 15th century the crypt is adorned with tiled walls corinthian columns blue and gold mosaics and stained glass windows the centerpiece of the room is a bass relief by sculptor h.h armstead it shows a young girl being raised up by an angel the girl was julius's daughter ada who had died aged only eight in 1875. five years after the completion of the monumental mausoleum another german immigrant was buried under a plain flat slab on a small side path with only a dozen people in attendance this was the original resting place of karl marx the german philosopher author and father of communism lived in london from 1849 until his death in 1883 his grave was neglected for decades covered by overgrown weeds until 1954 when marx's remains were moved to a more visible location in the cemetery in 1956 the marx memorial fund financed the construction of a monument topped with a gigantic bronze burst by socialist sculptor lawrence bradshaw the stern bust of karl marx has attracted tourists for decades many of them are sympathizers of the ideologies he originated coming to pay tribute to the radical thinker who changed the course of the 19th and 20th century but other visitors were not so well inclined and marx's grave has been repeatedly vandalized in 1960 two swastikas were painted in yellow along with the slogan in german saying that marx loved adolf eichmann in 1970 a pipe bomb exploded at the base of the memorial and more swastikas were drawn on it police also noticed someone had tried to soar off marx's nose raising fears that someone had planned to stuff it with explosives more recently in february 2019 the memorial was vandalized twice first the marble plaque listing the names of marx and his family members was smashed up with a hammer two weeks later the plaque was damaged further and slogans appeared painted in red over the marble slabs doctrine of hate architect of genocide and memorial to bolshevik holocaust as a result since february 2020 the memorial has been placed under round-the-clock cctv surveillance marx may have the best-known grave to suffer vandalism but it is certainly not the only case in highgate the next grave we're going to visit is one of marguerite radcliffe hall also known to friends and lovers as john born in 1880 to a wealthy family marguerite shocked society by coming out as a lesbian she had a 15-year relationship with singer mabel veronica batten a love story that ended only by mabel's death soon afterwards marguerite or john began a relationship with sculptor unalina trollbridge in 1928 radcliffe hall published the novel the well of loneliness openly addressing the subject of lesbianism predictably the novel and her author suffered a relentless and hostile press campaign in later life margaery continued to stir controversy in the late 1930s she moved to italy began a menage a trois with una and a russian nurse eugene soleen while there she embraced the fascist movement but was forced to leave at the outbreak of world war ii john died of bowel cancer on october 7th 1943 and was buried within the circle of lebanon inside the mausoleum of mabel veronica batten her first love una trabridge had an inscription placed inside the crypt which read and if god chooses i shall but love thee better after death and it would have been una's wish to lay beside her as stated in her last will but una died abroad in rome in 1963 when her funeral instructions were found it was too late she had already been interred at the english cemetery in rome that is another interesting burial ground by the way which lies at the foot of a 36 meter pyramid built in 12 bc but back to john's tomb unfortunately her grave was all but forgotten for decades as most of the cemetery fell into disrepair marguerite's memorial was damaged by vandals who scrawled satanist writings and symbols on the slab inside the casket had begun to rot it took 51 years after radcliffe hall's death before somebody took care of her resting place in 1994 monica still and her partner mara burrell raised the seven thousand pounds needed to restore the tomb and if you fear that your final abode might be targeted by satanists how about you place a fearsome animal to stand guard you could take inspiration from two gentlemen who are buried in highgate the first thomas sayers was known in life as the little wonder and the napoleon of the prize ring a former bricklayer this average size man became the strongest and most famous bare knuckle boxer in victorian times in his long career seyes knocked out much larger opponents losing only one bout to nate langham in october of 1853 and even then it took langham 61 rounds to defeat him on april 17 1860 sayers faced u.s champion john camelheen in a match labelled the fight of the century and here's a small detail though they were popular bear knuckle fights were technically illegal which is exactly why the police showed up during the 37th round and did nothing for five rounds watching and enjoying the fight finally the bobbies broke up the match which was declared a draw sayers retired shortly after the fight and sadly slid down the slippery slopes of alcoholism and tuberculosis the champion died on november 8 1865 his funeral attended by 10 000 people the lloyd's weekly newspaper of november 19 1865 reported that the procession was a raucous drunken riot with so-called mourners who danced and screamed yelled and hooted whistled and shrieked like demons sayer's fans swarmed highgate causing great damage to the ground's plants and tombstones one member of the procession distinguished himself for his impeccable behavior standing dignified on the funeral coach that was lion the box's beloved dog lion is still there quiet strong and loyal or at least a marble life-size sculpture of him keeping god over his master's grave and here our video processes from a grave protected by a dog called lion to another memorial protected by an actual lion this is the tomb of george wombwell another victorian celebrity tamer of beasts owner of menorgeries and founder of the famous wombwell's traveling circus the largest of its time formerly a shoemaker wombwell bought at a bargain price two boa constrictors on the london docks after he made a small fortune by exhibiting them he expanded operations and founded his traveling menagerie of exotic animals in 1809. ten years later he needed 14 carriages to transport his animals touring across britain according to our friends at the lloyd's weekly wombwell was the proprietor of 30 lions 5 elephants 2 rhinoceroses and whole herds of tigers bears and so forth womwell took care of the breeding raising and taming of many animals himself including the first lion to be bred in captivity in britain this lion is quoted as being called william by some sources and wallace by others it is fair to say that womwell admired william wallace in 1825 women organized a fight between six bull mastiffs and his favorite pet lion the dossail nero but the well-behaved cat did not take the bait of a too easy victory womb then released wallace who mauled the dogs in a matter of seconds after a longer successful career woundwell died of bronchitis on november 16 1850 his funeral at highgate was attended by a large crowd his grave was a simple rectangular granite sarcophagus but on top of it a magnificent statue of good old nero rests strong and peaceful his eyes closed as if purring next to his master a place so rich in stories and suggestive architecture was bound to inspire the imagination of certain artistic folk one tragic highgate tale is believed to have inspired bram stoker while writing his masterpiece dracula the beautiful elizabeth siddal was the favorite model of the pre-raphaelite artistic brotherhood founded in 1848 a poet writer and artist in her own right elizabeth became the muse and later the mistress of poet and painter dante gabriella rossetti the two married in 1860 but it was not a happy union elizabeth was addicted to laudanna and suffered a miscarriage sipping into depression elizabeth ended her life with the lord and overdose on february the 11th 1862 when she was buried in highgate had distraught rossetti placed the only handwritten copy of his collected poems inside the coffin seven years later rossetti was in financial difficulties and feared he was losing his sight he saw his poetry as the only activity that could bring him back to his feet but alas his poems were blocked inside beautiful lizzie's tomb and so it was that in october of 1869 rossetti's agent charles howell obtained permission to exhume elizabeth's body and retrieved the book resetti was not present when in the dead of night a team led by hal disentered the coffin and broke open the lid howe's heart sank as the flickering flames of a nearby bonfire illuminated elizabeth's long auburn hair her body and her beauty were still intact after seven years and her locks of copper had grown to fill the coffin well that's at least what hal told rossetti and guess who the lloyd's weekly newspaper the publication popularized the story of siddhel's bizarre exclamation which may have made its way into bram stoker's imagination it may be that elizabeth's red hair and allegedly intact body inspired the character of lucy west denre in the novel dracula if you haven't read it lucy is a redhead beautiful young lady who has turned into a vampire and attacks children in hampstead right next door to highgate the interplay between highgate cemetery and vampiric fiction continued well into the 20th century when the graveyard fell into a state of disrepair and neglect in the decades after world war ii this encouraged the presence of occult enthusiasts satanists and vandals of all denominations there were reports of graves opened coffins lying broken on the ground with skeletons and other human remains exposed to vermin highgate made for a very convincing backdrop to the gloomiest kind of fiction and horror film company hammer jumped at the occasion their classic taste the blood of dracula was filmed in highgate in 1969 using the egyptian avenue and the circle of lebanon as prominent locations by that year the cemetery was already at the center of a rather spooky occurrence which could have been scripted by a hammer writer this was the affair of the highgate vampire the first sighting took place in 1963 in swains lane near the cemetery's north gate a young couple came face to face with a tall dark figure floating behind the railings its face was beyond human with two red slits for eyes when the woman screamed the creature disappeared later that year a dog walker in swain's lane saw the dark figure sliding over the cemetery wall when the man screamed the creature disappeared then again in the winter of 1967 two schoolgirls were walking down swain's lane when they witnessed a dark spectral body rising from an open grave when the girls screamed the creature disappeared but mr tall dark and not so handsome returned weeks later spoking another couple in swain's lane the witnesses said the apparition was accompanied by a sensation of overwhelming weakness and terrifying silence a silence that was broken by the girl's screams and as you probably guessed this made the creature disappear by 1969 these and other reports from highgate attracted the interest of two experts in the occult david farron a wicker enthusiast a member of the british occult society and sean manchester alleged bishop alleged descendant of lord byron and director of the occult investigation bureau both investigators reached the conclusion that the creature was a vampire and they both claimed they would catch it and a rivalry was born one winter's night in december 1969 fahren camped out in the graveyard he immediately hit ghostly pay dirt baron had camped out in the cemetery and according to his story he came face to face with the vampire parent barely escaped the fiend's attempts to hypnotize him but he had a confirmed sighting allegedly around the same time in 1969 manchester interviewed one of the school girls from the 1967 encounter who was plagued by horrific nightmares in ill health manchester noticed two small wounds on the girl's neck and immediately knew what to do he filled the girl's room with anti-vampiric charms garlic flowers and bags of salt this seemed to restore the girl's well-being as the investigation progressed farrent and manchester became local celebrities and were interviewed by the hampstead and highgate express in february 1970. manchester claimed that their foe was a 15th century romanian king vampire he had somehow ended up buried in the area long before the cemetery had been opened in recent years the activities of satanists and occultists had resurrected him the story was picked up by itv news i guess it was a slow news day on february the 13th manchester challenged farrent announcing he would personally lead a vampire under highgate that very night incredibly a crowd of amateur van helsing showed up in front of the cemetery gates after a short battle with the police hundreds of them climbed over the railings and followed bishop manchester on his mission more vandalism ensued and several people reported seeing a strange dark figure lurking among the tombstones but by the end of the night no vampires had been harmed in the making of the event farron staged his own bout of monster slaying some months later when he returned to highgate armed with a crucifix and a wooden stake the police were not amused and locked him up but farham was bailed out by a mysterious visitor and cleared of all charges in the following years scores of imitators continued to lay waste to the grounds of highgate in 1971 the charred headless body of an exhumed corpse was found at the graveyard a stake had been driven through the chest this finding was followed by regular reports of toppled tombstones desecrated graves and animal carcasses strewn on marble slabs drained of all blood the two lead hunters for their part focused on writing about their experiences david farren published beyond the highgate vampire in 1991 in which she writes of how he traveled to romania for his investigation but sean manchester had beaten him to the printing press coming out with the highgate vampire in 1985. in it he claimed to have hunted the vampire for years supported by his beautiful assistant lucia the two tracked the undead feet into a flat in crouch and north london manchester staked beheaded and burned the vampire but it somehow possessed lucia's body turning her into a giant spider bit of a weird story and absolutely based on fact not really the media craze that followed the never-ending vampire affair raised public interest on the once grand graveyard initially the heightened profile seemed only to cause further episodes of vandalism but there were people who legitimately came to see highgate as something of a national treasure in 1975 highgate was owned by a private company called united cemeteries the company was unable to finance upkeep and repair costs and eventually had to shut down the main access gates it appeared that the burial site was destined to suffer one of two opposing but equally pernicious fates to be vandalized in the limelight or to decay into oblivion luckily highgate got help from some timely friends an organization literally called the friends of highgate cemetery which was formed to assist in preserving the site this organization of volunteers began by removing overgrown vegetation but thanks to public support and charitable donations the friends were eventually able to acquire the whole cemetery in 1981. their conservation efforts have succeeded in restoring the grounds to conditions similar to the original victorian layout albeit with the western side kept in a state of picturesque managed wilderness the friends of highgate were able to restore the egyptian avenue the circle of lebanon and the terrace catacombs the main chapel and about 140 major funerary monuments about half of them have been listed by english heritage which is granted to the cemetery a grade one listing conferring exceptional interest if you'd like to visit highgate the eastern side is currently open every day of the year except for christmas boxing day or whenever a funeral procession is in progress access to the western side is normally granted to guided tours so i really hope you found this video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Geographics

Views: 288,000

Rating: 4.9290118 out of 5

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Id: dY2XnD8DtWc

Length: 23min 10sec (1390 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 25 2021