Continuing my look at some of the wonderful graves at Highgate Cemetery. Again, I’m going to highlight some of the notable names buried there, and then I’ll move on to some of the beautiful angels and monuments.
Here’s the grave some people wanted to see during the 80’s … Jeremy Beadles. It was actually quite a shame when he died, because no matter how annoying he could be, he did produce some entertaining TV, unlike what we have to put up with today. His stone says “writer, presenter, curator of oddities…. ask my friends”
This is the temporary place marker for the grave of Malcolm McClaren, the manager of the Sex Pistols, and musician in his own right. This was originally used on one of the trucks that followed his coffin through Camden onto Highgate for his his funeral. Each time I go back, its in a further state of decomposition.. maybe symbolic? I’m hoping that when it comes to putting up a proper headstone (the ground has to settle for about a year before a full stone can be placed) it will be just as striking and bold. I think he would have wanted that.
McClaren’s always loved Highgate and indeed used the West part of the cemetery in “The Great Rock n’ Roll Swindle” film, where he is seen singing “You Need Hands” amongst the tombs of the Circle of Lebanan. And further down Swain’s Lane (the small road that separates the two sides of the cemetery) there is a another building used as his home in the film, and indeed the “MM” Warner Brothers type logo was seen above the gates of the building in the film.
Now this is an interesting one, and certainly not one that would be well known. It is the grave of Issachar Zacharie, who, apart from being high up in the British Masons, was chiropodist to Abraham Lincoln!
and finally, for now, the grave of pop artist Patrick Caulfield. As you can see, even in death some people like to stand out from the crowd
More to be seen soon!!
