Curator's Choice: Two forgotten mausoleum gates inspired by Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde's graveyard at Highgate Cemetery

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Dr Ian Dungavell found a pair of lost 19th century mausoleum doors - inspired by the graveyard where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde lie - during his duties at London’s Highgate Cemetery

“Under one of our mausoleums there’s a collection of bits and bobs from unidentified locations around the cemetery. No-one who’s around at the moment knew that they were there, so they’re a bit of a rediscovery.

They might have made their way there for safekeeping back in 1975, when the friends group took over from the private company which was running the cemetery. People had very long-term plans to do what they could when they could, so there might have been a plan to sort these gates out one day.

We lifted them out and I recognised the particularly fine metal gate design of them – it matches the design on a similar pair in one mausoleum. The gates were missing but you could still see the metal fixings in the floor and the roof where the gates were fixed.

We took the tape measure and made sure they fitted. They’re the same design as the one on the vault that’s a couple of doors down. When different families have these mausoleums, they might customise them to suit their own tastes.

The fact that we had two mausoleums with the same design makes it much more likely that they were part of the original cemetery. They would have been put up in 1838 and the cemetery was put up in 1839.

I don’t know who made them, but the architect who was in charge of that strip of gates was a man called Stephen Geary. He was a bit of a cemetery entrepreneur, an interesting character.

He also designed the monument which gave King’s Cross its name. It was an unfortunately ugly monument in the end. It was meant to have King George IV on the top, but it had this horrible-looking lump, much-derided and pulled down.

Back in the 1830s everybody was inspired to build cemeteries by Père-Lachaise in Paris, which is where Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison, people like that are. It was the most famous cemetery in the world in the 1820s and 1830s.

There was a bit of Père-Lachaise-mania. I was on holiday in Paris and thought I’d look in the Bibliothèque nationale and see what they’d got on Père-Lachaise.

There’s a digitised collection of 18 gates and grills from Père-Lachaise. Opening that book I thought ‘oh my goodness, that’s the one we’ve got in Highgate.’ It was a totally random discovery but really interesting to cemetery historians and a documentary example of where the English were copying the French.

We’ve put in for listed building consent to replace the gates in what we think is their original position. It’ll be a specialist operation to take them away and remove the top layer of rust.

The gates are really heavy. We will have some very hefty people moving them. It comes down to sheer bodily force, I’m afraid.

One of the things about Highgate is that we spend about £150,000 a year on restoring the cemetery. No other cemetery in the country can do that because they’re generally owned by a local authority and all the tombs are private property, it would be outrageous to spend public money on that.

We’re also, as far as I know, the only cemetery in the country which charges people to come and visit. All the money we get is spent looking after the cemetery.

The condition of Victorian cemeteries generally is going downhill. The Heritage Lottery Fund, much to its credit, has been a great supporter of cemeteries – it’s now working with Brompton and Arnos Vale. It’s a fabulous organisation, and I say that without us getting a penny from them.

We’ve got some massive bronze doors we’re working on in another mausoleum at the moment. Unfortunately gravity has taken its toll on them and they’re starting to stick, so we’ve got a structural engineer coming to look at that.

One of our clients has just got permission to build a new mausoleum in the cemetery, a 21st century one. We haven’t signed the final agreements yet, but the planning consent has come through.

I wasn’t going to have just anything, so it was a very difficult piece of negotiation. We sell people the right to erect a mausoleum on the land – they don’t actually get the land.

In 100 years’ time we’ll be responsible for that mausoleum, so it was really important to me that it was a building with the quality to last.

We’re a Grade I-listed landscape so we’re very fortunate that they commissioned a very good architect who’s a master at using massive blocks of stone to create a very beautiful structure. Hopefully that will start within a couple of months.

The stones are cut off-site and then craned into place like a big jigsaw puzzle. It won’t be ready until early next year. It’ll have a full-size Carrara marble inside and bronze doors. As an art object it will be a beautiful addition to the cemetery, hopefully.

Things always take their time – it’s a case of act in haste, repent at leisure, because we’re not going anywhere. It’s worth our while to make sure we get it right the first time.”

• Highgate Cemetery is open daily. You can visit The Friends of Highgate Cemetery online.

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Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/historic-buildings/art525950-curator-choice-dr-ian-dungavell-found-two-forgotten-mausoleum-gates-at-highgate-cemetery