News Year 9 Visit Highgate Cemetery 29.09.2022

Having been studying Bram Stoker’s Dracula in their English lessons and the Industrial Revolution in History, Year 9 visited the atmospheric Highgate Cemetery on Tuesday afternoon.

Much of Dracula is set in and around the cemetery, with its views out to Hampstead Heath, and it is easy to see why Stoker found Highgate an inspiring place for his story with its beautiful and sinuous self-seeded trees in amongst the gloomier traditional yews. Students entered the fortified front that scares away the grave robbers and then mounted the stairs. A few lines from Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ prepare you and leave on a promise that ‘every winter change to spring’.  Whilst many of the girls asked great questions about the symbolism of the architecture, I think it is fair to say that they were still left with many more, especially in the catacombs and Circle of Lebanon. They noticed how well the grave of LGBTQ+ icon Radclyffe Hall is attended to and were quite convinced many parents would be impressed to know George Michael found his resting place there.

Students left brimming with questions and we thank staff who gave up their time to attend and made the trip a success.