Richard Webber, Michael Hammerson, John Plews and Camden Mayor Samata Khatoon take a look at the new Visit Highgate signboard in Pond Square

TOURISTS who think you only visit Highgate to see its historic cemetery are being encouraged to stop to enjoy scores of other points of interest.

New signboards were revealed in the village near the Flask pub and in Pond Square on Friday to provide a map and information about what to see ­– and stories from the area’s rich history. It is part of the ‘Visit Highgate’ drive worked up by volunteers and the Highgate Society, and paid for by Camden Council.

A map guide is also being reprinted.

John Plews, who has lived in the area for 40 years and ran the Upstairs At The Gatehouse theatre with his wife Katie, was joined by “co-conspirator” Richard Webber, the Society’s Michael Hammerson, ward councillor Anna Wright and Mayor of Camden Samata Khatoon for the unveiling.

Mr Plews said: “I’m happy to say there’s only two empty shops at the moment and we have over 50 independent retailers. I think the tourists really help keep our village the way it should be.”

But he added: “An awful lot of people come here because they are looking for the cemetery, which is great and it certainly puts Highgate on the map but we’d like them to come back. “People ask you where the cemetery is, and you point over there and they walk down the very steep hill and then they are very reluctant to walk back up it.”

The gradients are so sharp near the cemetery – the gothic graveyard home to the last resting places of Karl Marx, George Michael, George Eliot and Jeremy Beadle – that they are a favourite challenge among amateur cyclists.

A second signboard is revealed in Pond Square

“Can we get an escalator up or one of those trams they had a 100 years ago coming up Swains Lane?,” Mr Plews joked at the unveiling. “Obviously there is a lot more to Highgate and as our map says there are 140 points of interest around Highgate and it’s not only the village. Of course, we have Archway Road too.”

He added: “We’ve got four more boards to go. The ultimate aim is to have a visitor information centre in Highgate where those of us who are of a certain age and retiring will be able to sit in a little hut and tell visitors exactly where to go. We have looked at various sites and it is a long-term project.”

Mr Webber said the Visit Highgate group’s aim was to “improve visitor experience”, adding: “Compared to other historic places we might visit, I don’t think we can say Highgate has been particularly well organised in telling visitors about its heritage.”

Cllr Wright said the project had been held up longer than it should have been by planning red tape over four years, “but we got there in the end”.

She told the gathering: “I think it’s an extraordinary tribute that we are here today, to the determination and the sheer bloodymindedness of members of our community wanting to get stuff done and hammering at that door. “I just want to say thank you for your love of your local area. I think the boards are brilliant.”