The vampires of Highgate

Highgate Vampire - The Legend

Highgate Cemetery was constructed in 1839 and it was a very fashionable burial place for Victorians. By the 1960's Highgate Cemetery had fallen into neglect and decay. Stories started circulating that the cemetery was haunted and newspapers started reporting England's first Vampire in over a hundred years.

In 1963 two 16 year old convent girls were walking home at night after having visited friends in Highgate Village. Their return journey took them down Swain's Lane past the cemetery. They could not believe their eyes as they passed the graveyard's north gate at the top of the lane, for in front of them, bodies appeared to be emerging from their tombs.

Another incident, some weeks later, involved a couple who were also walking down Swains lane. The lady recorded glimpsing something hideous hovering behind the gate's iron railings. Her fianc� also saw it, and both stood frozen staring at it for what seemed like several minutes. Its face bore an expression of absolute horror.

Soon others sighted the same phantom as it hovered along the path behind the gate where gravestones are visible either side until consumed in darkness. Some who actually witnessed the spectral figure wrote to their local newspaper to share their experience. Discoveries were made of animal carcasses drained of blood. Very soon it was being described as a vampire.

In 1971 several years after the many publicised vampire sightings, a young girl claims she was actually attacked by the vampire in the lane outside the cemetery. She was returning home in the early hours of the morning when she was suddenly thrown to the ground with tremendous force by a "tall black figure with a deathly white face. At that moment a car stopped to help her and the vampire "vanished" in the glare of the headlamps.

She was taken to the police station in a state of shock, luckily only suffering abrasions to her arms and legs. The police immediately made a thorough search of the area, but could offer no explanation to the incident. More mysterious still was the fact that where the vampire vanished, the road was lined by 12ft walls.

Another interesting case is that of the man who was hypnotised by something in the cemetery. He had gone into the cemetery one evening to look around, and as the light began to rapidly fade he decided to leave, but became hopelessly lost. Not being a superstitious person he walked calmly around looking for the gate when suddenly he became aware of something behind him. Swinging around he became "hypnotised with fear" at the tall dark figure of the vampire confronted him. So great was the intensity of his fear that he stood motionless for several minutes after the vampire vanished. He later recalled that it was almost as if he had been paralysed with fear by some force.