Highgate Cemetery

May seem like a strange destination for the casual tourist, but what a surprise Highgate cemetery is. A wonderfully preserved victorian cemetery full of great sculptures and well known names. From the wonderful atmosphere in the West side, to the tranqulity of the East. The guides certainly know their stuff, very knowledgeable and entertaining. We had a tour of the West side. It cost us £5, but it was certainly worth it. The guide we had seemed to know so much about the cemetery, from the people there to what various symbols on the stones meant. She took us to many places in the West side but some of the one's we wanted to see (Faraday, Rosetti and Dickens) were ...  Read the complete review

(Sorry, really couldn't think of a better title.) There are seven large cemeteries in London. All were created in the 1830s (or thereabouts) and were designed to allow interment of bodies in a secure environment, safe from roaming animals, city improvements and grave-robbers. They weren't connected with any of the existing churches, although all had chapels built in them for funeral rites to be performed. They were all built in what were then the outskirts of London, although all have now been absorbed by the ever-growing city. I guess Highgate is the most famous of all of them. Karl Marx is buried there, it generally has a reputation for being ...  Read the complete review

I live just a few yards from the Cemetery where Karl Marx is buried and what a spooky place it is . During the day if you go and visit all the graves in the Cemetery you will get a very spooky feeling but pass by it at night and a whole new type of fear will rush through your body. When i take the dog out in the evenings the best place to take him is down the hill past the cemetery but there are no houses and very few cars pass at night and if you do happen to look to your left you see straight in to the graves and it can be really terrifying when you see the great big angle figures on the graves and broken and un-cared for graves that are in the thickets ...  Read the complete review

A tour of this stunning, spooky, atmospherically overgrown hillside cemetery is a must for anyone looking to discover off-the-beaten-track London. Victorian funereal extravagance at its most extreme and extraordinary can be witnessed in ever increasing intensity as you climb the hill towards the promenade at the top end (where once the fashionable walked, contemplating their own mortality). The guides certainly know their stuff, but manage to convey the attitude that taking tourists around is a necessary evil, and there's no time at all for lingering or asking any but the most cursory questions. The West Cemetery (the best part) is only accessible by guided ...  Read the complete review

 I remember back in the 60s during summer holidays, my parents taking me to Highgate Cemetery. Most children would probably cringe at such an outing. But for me, it meant that the summer had arrived and with it came those long days, intermingled, with play and an essence of growing up. Highgate cemetery in the mid to late 60s, before The Friends of Highgate took over, was the wildest, chaotic, crumbling, weirdest, beautiful, twisted, memory etched in stone, of a Victorian Era. It stands on a hill with an imperialistic view over North London and the cemetery then, like its more permanent occupants, was in a state of decay. Hammer films used Highgate cemetery for most ...  Read the complete review