please empty your brain below |
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Did you have to pay extra for a "photo permit! for the cemetary. as I was threatened with? |
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No. "Ticket prices include permission to take photos for personal use only. Professional photography, video cameras and tripods are not allowed." Maybe that's a recent rule change. |
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Did you meet God's Mother? Near the gatehouse on the way out we were met by an elderly woman who could easily have been a character from Midsomer Murders - she was jostling a donations tin not so much in our direction, but under our noses. At the time the Aussie Dollar was worth, like, 37p or similar and I was too poor / stingy to give any more money (received an obvious glare in return). Upon sighting her our tour guide said in a hushed and scared whisper "oh oh - it's God's Mother!!!" Seems they all live(d) in fear and awe of her, and, if I remember rightly she may have been THE person who saved the cemetery in the seventies. Quite a character obviously. I hope that she is still there! I have to agree re the tour guides btw - ours was fantastic. Keep your eye out for the possum too. My travel companion reckoned it was just a giant squirrel, but I am certain that we disturbed an illegal immigrant Aussie Possum at one point on our tour. |
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Thanks DG Highgate cemetery is now on the list of places to visit this year. |
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Fascinating. But surely "interment" not "internment" in line 5. |
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It's an incredible place - I have many ancestors buried there, apparently. And that house in the middle of it is amazing - what view! At least you know the neighbours are going to be quiet ... I will have to make a visit there soon. |
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I'm a local and had no idea about the Karl Marx tearooms, or the cemetery stopping the extra charges for camera permits - hooray! - so both must be fairly new. The cemetery tours and guides have always been excellent, but do note that if you're disabled, elderly or unfit, or with anyone in those categories, the Western Cemetery tour is probably not going to be for you, as there's hardly anywhere to sit down and a lot of steep slopes.
The lido is great, and the ladies' bathing pool is absolutely magical in summer. And it's spring-fed, so you can (sort of) claim to have swum in the Fleet :) |
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It’s good to learn that Radclyffe Hall’s grave is being looked after. I’ve read her once-controversial novel The Well of Loneliness. The passage about lesbian love is couched in such oblique terms that I had to read it three times before I cottoned on, even though I knew what the story was about. Extraordinary to think there was an obscenity trial. |
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Heh. My guide was so impressed that I had heard of Radclyffe Hall and was able to tell the group who she was, although I got lots of strange stares afterward (and even more so when I said 'LOOK A POSSUM!!!!'). But I was also very chuffed to see her grave. It was also fascinating to see the following that Marx has in death. Quite a few acolytes (some well known) are buried near him. Bugger the crap weather. I wanna go back to London, wahhhhhhhh! |
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If it was a squirrel it was on steroids. Seriously. It was a big bugger. We call 'em possums (not opossums) over here and I have to admit I think they are cute and encourage them in my garden. After all they were here before us! They have been pushed into urban areas because of depleted habitat - or more to the point urban areas have taken over their habitat. I do know that they can be 'pests' though. Their natural food is Australian native trees, which, in turn, contain toxins as a defence against being totally munched, so they have to remain mobile (they cannot eat too much from the same tree). But they love ornamentals here, and in New Zealand are a pest because they have no natural predator and also do not find the vegetation toxic. I imagine they would give squirrels a run for their money - grey and red. |
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May I humbly suggest that, when you eventually draw Hammersmith & Fulham out of your hat, if you're inclined to pick a football venue for your "somewhere sporty" then you might be happier at Craven Cottage (an Archibald Leitch ground in a park along the river) than at Stamford Bridge (which has, as I understand it, been robbed of much of its character by recent renovations)? |
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Thinking of the modernist architectural intruders, I was at an Open House a few years ago at Stoneleigh Terrace, 1970's Camden council optimistic architecture-will-make-everything-wonderful-in-the-future housing (I think the general area was called New Camden), and as we were being led around the estate I was surprised to see the cemetery just across the low wall. At least there was a wall.
So not so close, and not so modern, but startling nonetheless. (Sorry I keep commenting v. late...) |
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Just thought you might like to know that you can now go inside both the catacombs and the splendid mausoleum to Julius Beer opposite - have posted pics on my flickr page. And there are real and stone kittens too ...
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