IN a somewhat unusual move, authorities in north London are considering heating the graves in one of the world's most famous cemeteries.
No, they're not trying to warm up some clearly very cold cadavers, but rather help preserve some of the tombs for the crowds of tourists who visit some of the extremely famous deceased.
The Highgate Cemetery Trust looks after the final resting place of revolutionary Karl Marx, singer George Michael, author Douglas Adams of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy fame, and famed Victorian novelist George Eliot among about 50,000 other graves, and has cited the changing climate as a key issue.
"Big freezes are really bad for us, and when we have long, dry summers that's really bad for us as well," said Ian Dungavell, CEO of the Trust.
He noted that a mausoleum built for newspaper baron Julius Beer is so lavish that it has a power socket which could be used for a heater in extremely cold weather.
"In 2022 it got so cold in there that it froze on the inside as well as the outside," Dungavell said.
"It pinged off some glass tiles from the wall, breaking them," he added, noting the cost of repairs to the historic artefacts was prohibitive, particularly in the case of older memorials where families were no longer interested in the upkeep.
"It's pretty funny to heat a mausoleum, but that could save us a lot of money," he said.
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