Part of: Highgate School
Old Highgate Chapel graveyard wall
Highgate · Highgate · Second-audit addition
Story
The walls observed today near Highgate High Street and Southwood Lane, seemingly mere property boundaries or parts of a building, are in fact surviving fragments of a much older historical landscape. Their modest presence is a tangible echo of the ancient Highgate Chapel and its adjacent burial ground, which served the local community long before the current Highgate School was established in its Victorian form. The history of Highgate as a significant settlement truly began with the construction of the Great North Road in the 14th century and the subsequent need for a chapel to serve both travellers and the burgeoning population. St Michael's Chapel, consecrated in 1565 and commonly known as Highgate Chapel, was erected on the foundations of a medieval hermitage that already stood at this elevated point. It functioned as a chapel-of-ease to Hornsey Parish Church and was surrounded by a burial ground, which, as was customary, served as the final resting place for the area's inhabitants. This arrangement of chapel and cemetery, intrinsic to the parish life of the period, defined the land's use for centuries. Upon the founding of Highgate School in 1565 by Sir Roger Cholmeley, the chapel became part of the school's endowment, serving as both its place of worship and the local parish church until the construction of the larger St Michael's Church in 1832. The burial ground continued in use, albeit with changes and expansions over the years. The walls we see today are, in essence, the original boundaries or reconstructions upon them, having withstood the area's metamorphosis. Observing their construction and their placement on the terrain allows one to mentally reconstruct the extent of that ancient burial ground. They are a silent vestige of how modern educational institutions and urban structures often rise upon older religious foundations, transforming but not entirely erasing the imprint of what once was. They remind us that even the humblest elements of the urban environment can be custodians of a rich and profound history.
What to look for
Look for sections of old wall whose importance lies not in their decoration, but in the fact that they defined the perimeter of the chapel's former burial ground.
Secret detail
An apparently ordinary boundary wall preserves the geography of a chapel and burial ground that predated the current school campus, revealing a hidden history.
Where exactly
In the Highgate High Street and Southwood Lane area, at the surviving walls of the former chapel graveyard.
Orientation
Remain on the public pavement; do not attempt to pass through gates or school entrances.
Why it matters
This surviving wall physically connects the modern school with the medieval hermitage and chapel that originally gave rise to this specific spot in Highgate.
Access & opening
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Accessibility
Needs production accessibility check.