Highgate Cemetery is one of the great Victorian burial grounds of the world — a place of extraordinary atmosphere, Gothic architecture, overgrown pathways, and the graves of some of history's most remarkable people.
On a wooded hillside in North London, between the villages of Highgate and Dartmouth Park, lies one of the most remarkable spaces in the city: Highgate Cemetery. Part nature reserve, part open-air museum, part Gothic dream — it is one of the great Victorian burial grounds of the world, and a place that rewards repeated visits across all seasons.
History: London's Magnificent Seven
Highgate Cemetery opened in 1839, one of seven large private cemeteries established around London in the 1830s and 1840s to address the desperate overcrowding of the city's existing churchyards. These seven — Kensal Green, West Norwood, Highgate, Abney Park, Brompton, Nunhead, and Tower Hamlets — became known as the Magnificent Seven, and together they transformed the practice of burial in Britain, introducing the concept of the landscaped, park-like cemetery that we now take for granted.
Highgate was the most fashionable of the seven from the very beginning. Its hillside setting, its elaborate catacombs and Egyptian-style entrance arch, and its proximity to the wealthy households of Highgate and Hampstead made it the cemetery of choice for London's Victorian middle and upper classes. To be buried at Highgate was to make a final statement about one's station in life.
East and West Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is divided into two sections by Swain's Lane, which runs through the middle of the site.
The West Cemetery — the older and more atmospheric of the two — can be visited only on a guided tour. This is not a bureaucratic restriction but a conservation necessity: the West Cemetery is genuinely labyrinthine, and without a guide it would be easy to become lost among the overgrown pathways, subsiding monuments, and tangle of ivy and elder that now characterise much of the space. The tours are led by knowledgeable volunteers from the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust and last approximately an hour.
The highlights of the West Cemetery tour include the Egyptian Avenue — a tunnel-like entrance flanked by obelisks and lotus-flower columns that opens into the Circle of Lebanon, a ring of catacomb vaults built around a magnificent cedar of Lebanon tree. The atmosphere in this part of the cemetery, particularly on a grey autumn morning, is genuinely extraordinary: the combination of Victorian Gothic architecture, mature trees, and decades of benign neglect creates something that feels more like a film set than a public space.
The East Cemetery is open for self-guided visits and is where the most famous graves are located. Entry requires a small admission fee, and the atmosphere is somewhat more managed than the West Cemetery — the pathways are clearer, the monuments better maintained — but it is no less moving for that.
Famous Graves
The East Cemetery is home to the tomb of Karl Marx, marked by a massive bronze bust and an inscribed base bearing his famous words: "Workers of all lands, unite." The grave is a place of political pilgrimage for visitors from around the world, and fresh flowers are frequently laid at its base.
Nearby lie the graves of George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, one of the greatest English novelists), Herbert Spencer (the philosopher and sociologist who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"), and Ralph Richardson (the actor). The East Cemetery also contains the grave of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, marked by a simple stone that is often adorned with pens left by visiting fans.
In the West Cemetery, the grave of Michael Faraday — the scientist whose work on electromagnetism and electrochemistry transformed the modern world — can be found on the guided tour, along with those of the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti's wife Elizabeth Siddal and numerous other Victorian worthies.
Highgate Cemetery as Nature Reserve
One of the most remarkable things about Highgate Cemetery is that it functions, alongside its role as a burial ground, as a functioning urban nature reserve. The Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust manages the site with conservation as a priority, and the result is an extraordinary habitat for wildlife in the middle of the city.
Foxes are regular visitors, particularly at dusk. The overgrown sections of the West Cemetery support a wide range of plant species, including several that are rare in urban environments. In spring, the cemetery is full of birdsong; in autumn, the combination of mature trees and Victorian stone creates one of the finest displays of turning leaves anywhere in North London.
Visiting Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is located on Swain's Lane, N6. The nearest Underground station is Archway (Northern line), from which it is a fifteen-minute walk uphill. The East Cemetery is open Monday to Friday 10am–5pm and weekends 11am–5pm (shorter hours in winter). West Cemetery guided tours must be booked in advance and typically run on weekends and selected weekdays.
Admission charges apply to both sections; the income goes directly to the maintenance and conservation of the cemetery. Photography is permitted in the East Cemetery; in the West Cemetery it is permitted only on photography-specific tours. Please observe the quiet and respectful atmosphere — Highgate Cemetery is still an active burial ground.
