UK cemetery's 'horrific' £18m project sparks fury - toilets to be built metres from graves

A multi-million-pound project to "transform" a famous cemetery has been met with opposition from families who don't want a "brutalist-style cement block" being built metres away from their loved ones' graves. The Friends of Highgate Cemetery (FHC) Trust provoked the anger by submitting plans for an £18 million refurbishment of the site, where major figures including Karl Marx and George Michael are buried. The first phase of development would include the construction of a new "gardener's building" including a staff and public toilet, which critics say would sit just metres away from some of the graves.

Tom Pignott-Smith, the son of actor Tim Pigott-Smith, who was laid to rest at in 2017, said his family had applied for a licence to exhume after learning of the development. Pamela Miles, the widow of Pigott-Smith, who is best known for his role in 's The Jewel in the Crown, also described the toilet block as a "horrific" intrusion on the burial ground.

"I bought a double grave on the mound when my husband died, intending when I died to join him there," she said in a letter of objection to Camden Council. "Grief is a very powerful emotion and needs peace and quiet in beautiful surroundings," Ms Miles added. "This building is a disgrace and an insult to caring loved ones."

Sara Wood, widow of the architect Nicholas Wood, who died in 2021, also criticised the planned development as an "urbanised box" with "prison-like windows".

"The path from the Karl Marx tomb will have an intrusive garage-like shed poking up, and his actual burial place will lose its quiet, isolated, historic charm," she said.

Highgate resident Esther Oxford, whose mother is buried in the cemetery, recounted her "alarm" upon discovering plans for the "cement block" building.

"If my father and I had known that such an oppressive, ugly building [would] turn the resting place of my mother into the backyard of a toilet block, I would never have chosen that grave site for my mother's coffin," she said.

Fellow objector Emily Wood suggested that the refurbishment had been devised "purely on commercial grounds to attract visitors to what should be a place of solitude and rest".

Ian Dungavell, chief executive of FHC, said he had apologised for the concerns among families sparked by the proposals and promised to discuss revised plans for the building, including lowering the entrance and preventing public use, with grave owners in early June.

He told : "We wish [we] could put it somewhere else, but despite extensive looking, we haven't been able to come up with another location. There are other buildings in the cemetery that are very close to graves. These are the facilities for the gardening team who look after the entire 36-acre site."

Mr Dungavell previously said the new "high quality" gardener's building was "sorely needed". He told Ham & High: "It is crucial to support the maintenance of the cemetery for all users."