Visitors recall fearsome encounter at Highgate Cemetery
Regarding the letter from John Oakes that Highgate cemetery is very grateful to its tourists (H&H letters, January 25). When I and some friends turned up for a tour a crotchety woman of about 90 grudgingly let us in and proceeded to harangue us with a l
Regarding the letter from John Oakes that Highgate cemetery is 'very grateful' to its tourists (H&H letters, January 25).
When I and some friends turned up for a tour a crotchety woman of about 90 grudgingly let us in and proceeded to harangue us with a long list of don'ts and can'ts. Anyone foolhardy enough to ask a question had their head bitten off and hurled into Dunce's Corner.
One elderly man was practically in tears. Another visitor decided not to join the tour.
When the tour was over, we got more hectoring. There was also pressure to give extra money. She said that the £5 we'd paid for the tour didn't cover the costs so we should put a donation (preferably of the paper rather than coin variety) into a green box which she demandingly held out for us.
Far from seeming very grateful, she behaved as if we should be grateful, almost as if the cemetery was her own personal domain.
Semir Ali
Most Read
- 1 'Our beautiful boy': Bosco (and his big stick) dies after surgery
- 2 Unarmed man shot by police during prison break was ‘lawfully killed’
- 3 Police called to 'youth with knife trying to climb school gates'
- 4 'Hostility for LGBT+ people': Mike Freer resigns from Boris Johnson's government
- 5 Covid: North London hospital admissions rising amid national surge
- 6 Opening date confirmed for new Finchley Road Aldi
- 7 Fears Kenwood will become an 'entertainment centre' as application lodged
- 8 Jailed: 9 north London offenders put behind bars in June
- 9 Elvis Presley songwriter and former Ham&High columnist dies aged 82
- 10 Alexandra Palace: 2 hospitalised in Red Bull's Soapbox Race
Junction Road, N19