The Friends

We rely on the entrance charges you pay to enable us to maintain and enhance Highgate Cemetery. Unlike most cemeteries, we are not run or funded by a local council. All the funds we raise are devoted to the preservation of the cemetery: we don’t make a profit.

The Friends have three aims:

• to preserve Highgate Cemetery as a place of historic and other interest and beauty;
• to permit the Cemetery to be used as a public burial ground; and
• to secure the repair, restoration and preservation of the Cemetery for the public benefit.

Our articles of association is our governing document.

Articles of association (Updated 6 July 2021) 

A note about the Articles of Association

At the 2021 AGM, a revised set of Articles of Association was presented to the Members for approval.  The new Articles updated the governing document to reflect changes in company law and charity law since the previous amendment.  We also removed the provisions relating to the Protectors. 

After the AGM we identified that our lawyers had inadvertently made a couple of amendments to the Articles of Association that should not have been included because, although minor, such changes in wording required the consent of the Charity Commission and we had no intention to alter these provisions in updating the Articles. The changes did not alter the meaning of the Articles, but we wanted to let you know this had happened.  The link to the updated version is above.

The changes that were shown on the version of the Articles presented at the AGM that are not effective are as follows:

• the Objects of the charity (at Article 4) included the word ‘and’ at the end of the second clause;
• ·the Winding Up provisions (at Article 25) were re-worded (although the substance was the same)

Although the amendments that have not taken effect were minor, being the inclusion of the word ‘and’ within the Objects, and an adjustment to the winding up provisions (without altering the substance of that clause), we understand that Members may have questions regarding this situation. The Articles of Association now in force, and any further changes that may be necessary, will therefore be discussed again at next year’s AGM. 

Here is a comparison version showing the changes we consider not to be effective.