Just a short walk from Parliament Hill, up Swain’s Lane is the peaceful resting place of the 170,000 people who are buried in Highgate Cemetery. The Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust have launched a design and architecture competition to decide the best plans for the future of the cemetery that maintains its unique history and beauty.

Well known as the resting place of Karl Marx, artist Lucian Freud and ‘Wham!’ singer George Michael, the cemetery was popular for its guided tours before Covid-19 restrictions. However, there is still the opportunity for the public to visit the supposedly haunted cemetery.

Recently, Highgate Cemetery has announced their plans concerning the future lanscape and architectural developments of the next 25 years. 

Last November the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust launched two competitions in order to decide who to hire in landscape design and architecture to conserve and enhance the site. The competition brief featured proposals and challenges about climate change, decay and the changing visitor expectations and were asked to balance the requirements of a working cemetery with the cultural heritage and community needs and especially, the growing number of visitors (which is currently around 100,000 a year).

There is now a published shortlist of the finalists for both competitions (the Landscape Competition and Architectural Competition). The landscape finalists will now develop their ideas before an online public exhibition of their proposals in April, while the architectural finalists will set out their understanding of Highgate Cemetery’s needs and their approach to design. The winners will be announced in May.

Martin Adeney, Chair of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust said: ‘The output will provide us with a landscape vision and blueprint for managing the Cemetery over the next 25 years. Changes will take place gradually and it will be some time before we see work beginning. Meanwhile, we look forward to seeing developed submissions from the finalists and will welcome thoughts on the Landscape Masterplan concepts when we launch our online exhibition in April. The winners of the competitions will be announced in May and we will work with them to ensure the Cemetery remains the place of enchantment which so many people value, whose carefully-tended natural environment provides sanctuary for those buried here and their loved ones, as well as the thousands who visit.’