Best for notable burials: HIGHGATE CEMETERY
With tens of thousands of Gothic graves spread over 37 atmospheric acres, Highgate is one of the world’s most famous cemeteries.
Attracting 100,000 visitors a year, its list of notable burials include socialist philosopher Karl Marx, author George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans), and more recently singer George Michael.
Highgate is in fact two cemeteries – next to each other, but distinctly different. The West Cemetery opened first in 1839 and is the prettier one, with tombs rolling up a hillside culminating in Egyptian-style mausoleums.
The East, opened in 1855, is bigger and busier. It’s where Marx is buried, his tomb a huge tourist attraction. Ironically his ideological antithesis, liberal political theorist Herbert
Spencer, is buried just opposite, so the spot is fantastically dubbed Marx and Spencer corner.
George Michael is buried in a family plot in the West, unmarked to enable relatives to mourn in peace. But it doesn’t deter his many fans from searching for it.
In the 1970s, a media sensation around a vampire haunting the cemetery led to garlic and cross-carrying mobs breaking in at the, er, dead of night, and opening mausoleums to drive stakes into corpses.
This led to numerous horror movies being filmed there and is also the reason for the wild garlic now growing (great for making pesto, I was told). Entry £10 adults for both West and East, £4.50 for East.
NEAREST STATION: Archway, Northern Line