around the outside of central London. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards attached to individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead. The initial design was by architect and entrepreneur Stephen Geary.

On 20 May 1839, Highgate (West) Cemetery was dedicated to St James by the Right Reverend Charles James Blomfield,