Atmospheric, overgrown, and hauntingly beautiful, Highgate Cemetery is one of London’s most extraordinary and unexpected attractions. Opened in 1839, this Victorian garden cemetery is a romantic tangle of ivy-clad tombs, leaning headstones, and remarkable funerary architecture set among ancient trees. The final resting place of figures from Karl Marx to George Eliot, it’s a moving, evocative, and surprisingly peaceful place to explore.
A Victorian Garden of the Dead
Highgate was one of the “Magnificent Seven” cemeteries built around London in the 19th century to relieve the city’s overcrowded churchyards. Conceived as beautiful landscaped gardens, they became fashionable places of mourning and grand memorials. Over time, parts of Highgate fell into romantic, wild decay — and it’s precisely this atmospheric blend of nature reclaiming elaborate Victorian stonework that makes it so mesmerizing today.
The West Cemetery
The older West Cemetery is the most spectacular part, accessible only by guided tour. Here you’ll find the astonishing Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon, sunken rings of tombs built around an ancient cedar tree, plus grand mausoleums and gothic catacombs. The knowledgeable guides bring its history, symbolism, and many stories vividly to life.
Famous Residents
Highgate is the final resting place of many notable figures. The most visited grave is that of Karl Marx, marked by a huge bronze bust in the East Cemetery. Others buried here include the novelist George Eliot, the scientist Michael Faraday, the poet Christina Rossetti, and, in more recent years, a number of well-known writers, musicians, and public figures. It remains a working cemetery today.
The East Cemetery
The East Cemetery, where Marx lies, can be explored independently with a ticket, winding paths leading you past a moving mix of grand Victorian monuments and contemporary graves. It’s quieter and more open than the West side, and a wonderfully contemplative place for a wander among the trees and memorials.
Planning Your Visit
Highgate Cemetery charges an entry fee, which helps fund its ongoing conservation, and tours of the West Cemetery should be booked in advance. As a place of burial and remembrance, visitors are asked to be respectful and quiet. The nearest station is Archway, about a 15-minute walk, and it pairs beautifully with a stroll on nearby Hampstead Heath and the leafy village of Highgate.
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