Della Farrant 
Waterlow Park, situated between Highgate Hill, Highgate Cemetery East and Swains Lane, is a large expanse of green space where one could almost imagine that one was hundreds of miles away from London. The park was gifted to the public by Sir Sidney Waterlow in 1889, who had already donated adjacent Lauderdale House to St … Read more
ON BEHALF OF THE BISHOPSGATE INSTITUTE I WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND AN INVITATION TO READERS TO HELP US BOTH SOLVE A PUZZLE. The image to the right – which you may recognise from this site’s banner – is used with kind permission of the Bishopsgate Institute who are very enthusiastic about this project. You … Read more
This week I was flattered to be offered a half hour interview with LA based Gareth Davies and his UK based co-host Reeves Cooke of Para-Talk radio. My episode was number 70 – perhaps fitting when one considers how much the year 1970 influenced the Highgate mythos. The Para-Talk, which has an international audience, is … Read more
The Serpentine Mist Form of Swain’s Lane PLUS: a Forty Year Old Mystery Finally Solved? Guest Blog kindly contributed by Redmond McWilliams Date of investigation: Friday, December 9th, 2011 (9-10pm GMT). Being much intrigued by the two separate attacks that were allegedly carried out by the Highgate ‘Vampire’ on both a male student and a … Read more
Highgate Cemetery West, opened in 1839, is a well-maintained working cemetery, and a testament to the Victorian fascination with death. But it wasn’t always so serene. This sprawling 20 acre necropolis, built on the grounds of the long-since demolished Ashurst House, was almost closed for good in 1975 after falling into a state of severe … Read more
An entity, tall and swathed in black, has been seen gliding silently among the trees in nearby Highgate Woods by numerous independent witnesses and seemingly causing the temperature in the immediate vicinity to drop. Highgate Wood, which once formed part of the Bishop of London’s hunting grounds, is bordered at their southern extremity by Archway … Read more
The secretion of a hoard of objects in a hidden compartment at Lauderdale House, a mansion dating from 1582 which is situate in Waterlow Park, Highgate, lends itself not to the question of WHETHER witchcraft was practiced there – but by who and when. The discovery of these artifacts took place at some stage between … Read more
St Michael’s Church was erected on the site of the (by then) dilapidated Ashurst House in 1832. Coleridge, who spent his final years at Highgate, is buried in the crypt and it is here that one also finds the remains of the foundations of Ashurst House, along with the wine cellar. Only one haunting appears … Read more
Opened for business in 1860, the Highgate Cemetery East is sometimes uncharitably seen as a poor country cousin to Highgate Cemetery West. Its lack of grandiose architecture or outre landscaping seem however to have saved it from the ravages of vandalism which its next door neighbour has been subject to over the decades. But the … Read more