Ah, there you are.
I was beginning to think that you’d lost yourself.
Hello. My name's Henry Flynn.
I'm one of the curators at the British Museum.
I'm curator of this and that - mostly plaster cast replicas and models these days.
But that's not really what we're here to talk about today.
Because in my spare time, I'm a volunteer tour guide at Highgate Cemetery.
And welcome to my corner.
Yeah, alright, it's not really my corner, we just borrowed it for today so we can show you round,
and give you - Yeah, you, you and me.
Give you a little tour of the cemetery.
And I'm going to point out some interesting graves to you that… conform to a special theme.
Just to explain what Highgate Cemetery actually is, if you don't know already,
Highgate Cemetery is, well, it's a Victorian Gothic cemetery located in North West London.
Why does it exist? Well, it was one of seven large garden cemeteries
built in the 1830s to respond to a serious burial crisis.
London faced a population explosion around the turn of the 19th century.
People coming to live and work in the towns and cities rather than in the countryside
after the Industrial Revolution.
And that brought new problems, problems of housing and sanitation and hygiene.
And also, what do you do with the bodies of those people when they die?
Traditionally, people would have been buried in their parish churchyard, but during this
period of population expansion, that became a major problem because they became full to overflowing.
So the government stepped in in 1836 and passed the London Cemetery Act, which allowed the
creation of seven large garden cemeteries in a rough ring around London,
which in those days it was much smaller than it is today.
Highgate was the third of those seven, built in 1839.
It's split across two sites, we’re on the west side at the moment, which is the slightly older side,
and using the power of YouTube, we're going to be flitting back and forth
between West and East to visit some graves so that everything conforms to a nice narrative
that I come up with for you.
We're going to go and see the first of those graves now.
I'm not going to tell you who is until we get there.
But I've got a clue for you: you're going to need a towel.
[Jazzy music, birds]
So here we are at our first stop on our little themed tour.
It's the grave of Douglas Adams.
He was a six foot five ape descendant from Cambridge, and he's most famous for writing
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, within the pages of which you can learn about the
importance of the towel to the Galactic Hitchhiker.
Now, lots of people leave specific tributes to Douglas Adams at his grave,
and I'm going to do the exact same thing.
People honestly do do this. They do leave towels for him.
I'm going to put one down here. And I'm going to collect it later.
In addition to writing The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, that wholly remarkable book,
Adams wrote various other things as well, including this book here.
This book is called Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
And this is where we get our theme for our tour today.
It's within the pages of this book that he describes the concept of the interconnectedness
of all things, which is the idea that seemingly random people, places and events are, in fact,
inextricably linked.
All you need to do is look a little bit more deeply and you can find all those connections.
And that's what we're talking about today. We're looking at graves in Highgate Cemetery
of people who, for one reason or another,
are connected to the British Museum.
Now, some of these connections are going to be very strong.
Some of them are going to be a little bit tenuous.
And just to illustrate that, we've got this fun little Alfie guide at the bottom,
and that will give you points out of five.
How many Alfies we think the connections are relevant to the museum.
Alright, e're going to go back over to the West for our first British museum related grave. Off we go.
So let's begin by talking about this person here, Henry Vaughan.
Born Southwark in 1809 he was a son of a milliner or hatmaker who was very successful.
And when his father, the hat maker, died in 1828, he left Henry Vaughan a large amount
of money which enabled him to build up a nice collection of artwork,
and that's what his main interest was.
It seems like he knew Turner personally and he had a very, very important collection of Turner.
He was generous with his collection, he used to loan out during his lifetime,
and when he died, the bulk of it was distributed across various different museums.
He donated to us five Michelangelo drawings and over 500 prints and drawings by Turner.
But when he donated watercolours to museums in Scotland and in Dublin, he stipulated in
his will that they should only be shown for one month, and that would be in the month of January,
because he knew that that was when the light was weakest.
He knew that the brightness of color would fade over time and so that this would be protected
from that by only being displayed in the depths of winter.
And National Galleries of Scotland to this day only display their Turner Collection,
their 38 works, which was donated to them in 1900 after Vaughan died, they only display
them in the month of January.
So what's do you reckon? Where does he fit in the Alfie scale of tenuous-ness.
Generous donor, donated lots of work to our museum, very forward-thinking in terms of
his attitudes towards conservation, the preservation of those works for future generations to enjoy,
he was very, very forward thinking from that point of view.
So a nice, generous two and a half, I reckon.
Why don't we move on from the collection itself to the people who visit and use it in different ways?
Let's walk this way.
[Music, Birds]
[inaudible]
So we've just heard a little bit about how the museum developed its collection,
but what about the people who came to visit the museum and use that collection?
Of course, there are people who just come because they like to visit and look at beautiful objects,
but there are some people who use the collection for research.
And also, for example, there are artists who would like to use the collection to practice their craft.
We have a nice example of someone who used to do that buried right here.
This is the grave of Louisa Starr, or Louisa Starr Canziani, as she became known when she
married Enrico Canziani in later life.
And she used to come to the sculpture galleries to sketch.
Her parents reluctantly allowed her to do this.
She was quite young, she was only 14 when she first started doing this, but she was
encouraged by other art students, and she did develop a very obvious talent
to the point where she became talented enough to study at the Royal Academy, and her name
and her work became a regular fixture in Royal Academy exhibitions.
Her first piece appeared in 1866, and in 1867, one of her pieces won the gold Medal for History painting,
and she was in fact, the first woman to ever do this.
The piece itself was called ‘David, Kneeling before Saul with the head of Goliath’.
We actually have a print of that in the permanent collection, along with other examples of work
by Louisa Starr. And I think that's quite nice.
Someone who came to the museum as a visitor was inspired by its collection to develop
an interest in art to the point of becoming a professional artist,
now has examples of their work in the permanent collection forever.
I would say that the fact that Louisa Starr came to the museum from an early age as a visitor,
learned her craft as an artist and eventually ended up having her own work in the permanent collection.
I'm giving her a good, solid three Alfies out of five, and with that we're going to
move on to our next grave.
We've talked a little bit about people who have visited the museum and used the collections
in different ways.
But what about it's staff? What about people who work there?
[Music]
And I'm actually stood next to a former member of staff right here.
This is the grave of Thomas Watts.
Thomas Watts was a librarian, but he didn't just work in any old library.
He worked in the Round Reading Room, originally, the British Library, as it is now.
The book collection used to be housed within the British Museum.
He was particularly talented in the fact that he had a good memory and a natural aptitude for languages.
So he was very helpful in building and developing the collection of books in foreign languages
that the museum was developing at the time.
In 1839, the year that Highgate Cemetery opened his future resting place, he was involved
in producing a proper catalogue of the books and printed works in the collection,
and he very much enjoyed shelving them. That was something that he got a lot of pleasure out of.
And it is thought that he personally shelved over 400,000 volumes within a period of about 19 years.
Now there's no arguing with that. That's pretty impressive.
He, in fact, lived on site, lots of members of staff did at the time and he, in fact,
died there.
So that's a slightly unusual claim to fame.
What's really interesting from our perspective on this little tour that we're doing
is that he's gone the whole hog and he's chosen to have the British Museum mentioned in the inscription on his gravestone.
So his work place is mentioned on the headstone, on his permanent resting place.
And, speaking as a current member of staff, it's like having a slightly unsettling glimpse into the future.
Okay, Let's think for a moment about where Thomas Watts sits on the Alfie scale of tenuous-ness.
His connection to the British Museum, very much involved in the working and running of the reading room.
That's a pretty, pretty strong connection.
But come on, he's got the British Museum in his inscription.
That's a solid four.
I think. Don't you reckon? I think so.
Okay. We've now talked about someone who worked and, in fact ran the Round Reading Room.
What about people who used it as a reader?
I'll see you over in the East. [Music]
Yes. I can't bring you to Highgate Cemetery and not bring you to visit the grave of Karl Marx.
He's probably the most visited grave.
Born in Prussia, modern day Germany.
Philosopher, economist, controversial figure, there are those today who love and revere him.
I mean, that's obvious from the floral tributes that are left at the foot of the grave here.
There are those who think the complete opposite.
He still attracts very, very strong opinion, both in favor and against what he stands for.
Exiled from various places during his lifetime, including Prussia, including Paris, including Brussels.
And in 1849, he came to live in London, where he spent the rest of his life.
He was living fairly locally in Kentish Town, which explains why he's buried here.
But while he was here, he was researching and writing his most famous publication, Das Kapital.
And while he was researching this, he of course, needed a library and he spent a lot of time
in the Round Reading Room, which we've already heard quite a lot about.
He used it for a period of about 27 years from 1850.
So almost as soon as he came to London up until 1877.
But what about the Alfie scale? What to think about that?
Well, his only connection really, is the fact that he was a user of the Round Reading Room.
But what a person to be associated with that.
He is probably one of the most famous names recorded in the ledgers,
which are now in the British Museum archives.
Marx is probably the most famous name, but there's also people like, off the top of my
head, Lenin, under an assumed name, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but also Michael Faraday.
And Michael Faraday, interestingly enough, is buried about 10 minutes walk that way
on the west side of Highgate Cemetery.
So what do you reckon? How many Alfies?
I'm going to go with a good, strong three.
But what do you think? Leave some comments if you've got a different idea.
Have you ever thought about the connection between the British Museum and the British Library?
There's a story behind that and the someone both very, very closely connected with that story.
So come with me over this way. [Music]
So we've just visited the grave of Karl Marx, who, as we've just learned, was a regular
visitor to the round Reading Room, the place where the British Museum book collection was stored.
And it became clear around about 1951 that the collection had become so large that a
special, dedicated site was needed for a new British library.
So an architect was needed.
And I'm stood at the grave of Colin St John or Sandy, as he was known, Wilson,
who was an architect who was involved with this project for most of his professional career.
It took well over 34 years to complete.
He himself used to refer to it as the 30 Years War, and he had quite grand plans,
grand plans that didn't quite come to fruition.
It could've been quite different if he'd had his original way.
In around 1962, the plan was to, in fact, to demolish Great Russell Street
and build the British Library immediately opposite the British Museum.
This would have created a great centre of learning with the two institutions literally
immediately opposite each other with a nice central piazza.
But it was something that the public weren't really too sure about.
The government as well - there was a bit of a stop-start attitude towards the funding
of this project and there was a very strong ‘Save Great Russell Street’ campaign from
the public, which meant that this plan didn't go ahead.
So they settled on the site in St Pancras, which is where the British Library was built.
Now this monument is very, very nice. It's very, as you can see, very modernist in style,
reflective of Wilson's architectural style.
It's in fact intended to be a representation of the portico of the piazza of the British Library itself,
very, very fitting for his life and career.
It is tantalizing to think about what it might have been like if that had gone ahead.
And with that potential, that unrealized potential maybe, of the British Museum and the British Library
existing immediately opposite each other, I think that has to give him a good
solid three and a half, Alfies out of five, I reckon.
But again, as per, you might have different ideas, put your comments in the space below…
and be nice. [Music]
This grave right here is the grave of Alfred Stevens.
Alfred Stevens was an artist born in 1817.
He was good at painting. He made medals.
He was a sculptor, an interior designer.
There was nothing really that he couldn't do, and he did it to a very,
very high standard.
And to an extent, that was his problem, really. He was a perfectionist.
So he would go over time and over budget and often not finish things.
Now, his most famous commission was the Wellington Monument, which is in St Paul's Cathedral.
It's actually mentioned in the inscription on the grave here.
The monument itself, however, was completed after his death.
He died in 1875, and it's typical of Stevens, really.
It's something that went over budget and over time. He didn't see his most famous work in situ,
which is a great pity.
But what of his connection to the British Museum?
Well, Stevens was in fact commissioned to paint the interior of the reading room.
If you've been, you'll notice that it's a very plain, pale blue and yellow gold design.
The classically-inspired dramatic figures, which would be very bright and colourful,
that Stevens designed. They're conspicuous by their absence.
Because, of course, typical Stevens, unfortunately, due to the fact that it would have cost too
much and he never really was able to finish anything, he ended up not doing it.
It's very subtle and tasteful as it is now, but it could have been dramatically different.
So that's something that he almost contributed but didn't.
Is anything that he did contribute?
Well, in 1852, he was commissioned to design a series of metal lions, cast-iron lions,
which would have sat on top of the posts of a low level of railings, which used to be
on the perimeter of the museum just outside the iron railings which are there now.
At regular intervals, there would be a nice little seated lion.
I can show you, in this book.
Here is a representation of one of the lions.
Now, lions don't sit like that in nature.
That is not a natural way for a lion to sit down.
The thinking is that Stevens modelled this pose for the lion on the domestic cat which
belonged to a friend of his. So that nice little note to make.
And what were those lions called? How are they affectionately known, now?
Alfies.
They're not there now. The whole set of railings is now gone.
But we do in fact have one of them on display.
But the legacy goes beyond that. That lion design is going to be synonymous with the museum.
When you first visit, when you're walking through those glass doors, when you first walk in, you will see that
the representation of those lions is actually in the glass.
There are three represented on there, one is facing forwards, two are facing to the side.
It's even on my standard issue, curatorial, British Museum, yo-yo.
Yeah, alright. It's not really standard issue, but it should be.
But that's what I mean. You see there is the Alfie Lion on the merch basically.
So you just see how all-pervasive that design really was.
And so it just shows how Stevens' legacy continues to this day.
So to sum up - someone who almost painted the reading room but didn't;
someone who did make some lions which aren't there anymore, but kind-of are, if you look really closely.
What do we think on the Alfie scale of tenuous-ness?
I’m giving him a solid five. I mean, he literally invented the scale when he invented the Alfie.
So I think it's pretty fair.
Right then, time is getting on.
Time is an illusion, tours of Highgate Cemetery doubly so.
In a neatly cyclical way, we’re going to finish with Douglas Adams now.
So if you want to follow me, we're going to head back over to the east.
So just to sum up. Today, we’ve visited the graves of a generous museum donor, a talented museum visitor,
a museum librarian, a very famous researcher, a modern architect, and a Victorian artist,
each with their own separate lives and accomplishments, but each inextricably linked by the British Museum.
With the exception of perhaps, say, Karl Marx, it's probably fair to say,
that many of the people that we spoke about today, are perhaps, now considered a bit obscure,
and their graves are not that often visited, here at Highgate Cemetery.
So I think it's nice, that today, through this video, we've been able to hear their stories, in a bit more detail.
Back we go, off to the East, for our final stop.
We end as we began in a pleasingly cyclical way with the grave of Douglas Adams, the writer.
In the interest of making links, as we've been doing today, I thought you might be interested
to know that, amongst other things, Douglas Adams wrote for Doctor Who.
He wrote several scripts for the series, script-edited the 17th season in the late 1970s, and is
largely credited with writing…
I find it's always you have a coat with capacious pockets in these situations…
a story called City of Death.
It features several scenes in a museum, in the Louvre, where the Mona Lisa gets stolen
and hilarity ensues. You need to see that one. It's good.
Why am I talking about this?
Well, we've been talking about the interconnectedness of all things.
And we know that you like Victorian Gothic cemeteries.
You know that you like museums. We know that you like museum-related videos.
I thought you might be interested to know, if you also happen to like Doctor Who,
perhaps you do,
that we did a couple of years ago a British Museum Doctor-Who-themed video
because there are some doctor who banknotes in the Coins and Medals collection.
And I thought this one might be of particular interest to you.
And I understand that it's going to appear just to my left here....?
Is that right... guys?
No?
But you! Okay, you want something doing, you do it yourself. [Sonic Screwdriver noise]
There you go.
There are, of course, other videos available of you to see, given by my many wonderful colleagues.
Now my understanding is that there are some plaster casts that require my attention.
So I'm going to take my towel and I'm going to get going.
Must dash.
Thank you for watching. [Teleporting sound]
[Birdsong]