Excerpt from the linked content^1 by Jack Malvern:
>Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, which looks after the final resting places of Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and George Eliot in north London, is investigating whether it could prevent frost damage to monuments by keeping them warm.
>Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the charity, said that he was seeking advice from a conservator on the mausoleum built for Julius Beer, the newspaper baron.
>So grand is the former banker’s grave that it has its own electrical socket, which could support a heater to be used in extreme 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. There’s a power socket there and some background heat could have stopped the freeze-thaw process.”
>
>Dungavell said that while memorials were the responsibility of descendants of the dead, families often lost interest after a generation or two.
>He said that the Beer monument, built in 1880 and listed in 1974, was “too big to fail” and the charity had to intervene.
>The charity, which has spent up to £150,000 on conservation work in some years, has found that weather has become more problematic over the past 15 years.
>”One of the problems we are suffering from is the effects of climate change, which results in more extreme weather conditions,” Dungavell said.
>He said that the cost of repairing a listed tomb at the cemetery, which holds 170,000 bodies in 53,000 graves, could be up to £2,000.
Fuck *off*. In 2023? What an absolutely horrendous and unjustifiable use of energy.
From the article’s title I thought that Marx is heating his grave himself, providing electricity by spinning in his coffin…
Nice warm cosy places for people to sleep in. I’d use a simple greenhouse heater however they just sit around and could be removed by ne’er-do-wells and busybodies.
A lot of us can’t afford to heat our homes but sure, let’s spend resources heating graves. History is important but a new headstone can be carved if needed.
I’m just really happy people have to pay to see his grave
In reality
A) it’s one mausoleum, which is really a small building
B) that mausoleum is grade II listed so they have to protect it
C) frost is causing damage to the mausoleum building
D) this has nothing to do with Marx, whose grave is in a totally different part of the cemetery
“Local charity plans to protect grade II listed building from frost damage by heating it during extreme cold weather” would be a much more accurate headline.
Who gives a shit, they are dead.
Fucking vanity for the living. Do something better.
>Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, which looks after the final resting places of Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and George Eliot in north London, is investigating whether it could prevent frost damage to monuments by keeping them warm.
What if homeless people start sleeping on them?
I think vandalism is a larger threat to _Marx’s_ grave than cold weather…
10 comments
Excerpt from the linked content^1 by Jack Malvern:
>Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, which looks after the final resting places of Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and George Eliot in north London, is investigating whether it could prevent frost damage to monuments by keeping them warm.
>Ian Dungavell, chief executive of the charity, said that he was seeking advice from a conservator on the mausoleum built for Julius Beer, the newspaper baron.
>So grand is the former banker’s grave that it has its own electrical socket, which could support a heater to be used in extreme 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. There’s a power socket there and some background heat could have stopped the freeze-thaw process.”
>
>Dungavell said that while memorials were the responsibility of descendants of the dead, families often lost interest after a generation or two.
>He said that the Beer monument, built in 1880 and listed in 1974, was “too big to fail” and the charity had to intervene.
>The charity, which has spent up to £150,000 on conservation work in some years, has found that weather has become more problematic over the past 15 years.
>”One of the problems we are suffering from is the effects of climate change, which results in more extreme weather conditions,” Dungavell said.
>He said that the cost of repairing a listed tomb at the cemetery, which holds 170,000 bodies in 53,000 graves, could be up to £2,000.
^1 Jack Malvern for The Times, via Stuff, 14 Mar. 2023, https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/uk/300829980/highgate-cemetery-marxs-resting-place-considers-heating-graves
Fuck *off*. In 2023? What an absolutely horrendous and unjustifiable use of energy.
From the article’s title I thought that Marx is heating his grave himself, providing electricity by spinning in his coffin…
Nice warm cosy places for people to sleep in. I’d use a simple greenhouse heater however they just sit around and could be removed by ne’er-do-wells and busybodies.
A lot of us can’t afford to heat our homes but sure, let’s spend resources heating graves. History is important but a new headstone can be carved if needed.
I’m just really happy people have to pay to see his grave
In reality
A) it’s one mausoleum, which is really a small building
B) that mausoleum is grade II listed so they have to protect it
C) frost is causing damage to the mausoleum building
D) this has nothing to do with Marx, whose grave is in a totally different part of the cemetery
“Local charity plans to protect grade II listed building from frost damage by heating it during extreme cold weather” would be a much more accurate headline.
Who gives a shit, they are dead.
Fucking vanity for the living. Do something better.
>Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust, which looks after the final resting places of Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and George Eliot in north London, is investigating whether it could prevent frost damage to monuments by keeping them warm.
What if homeless people start sleeping on them?
I think vandalism is a larger threat to _Marx’s_ grave than cold weather…