Venere Travel Blog - It's our business where you sleep!

Visiting a cemetery in London may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there are more than 850 famous people buried in Highgate,

ranging from the grandfather of communism Karl Marx to author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.

Although the majority of plots were bought up in the Victorian era, burials still take place, which included the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who created international shockwaves in the UK in 2006, when he died claiming he had been poisoned by the Soviet security service.

Guided tours are the only way people can see some of the obelisks, catacombs and mausoleums that make up the Victorian architecture of the west and oldest side of the cemetery whereas visitors are free to wander the east side at will for a nominal fee.

1. Book ahead

There is only one tour a day around the west side of the cemetery at 14:00, so it is advisable to book in advance. The guided visit is led by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery, who charge £5 for the hour’s tour. They say this is not enough to cover costs, so there is a donation box for voluntary contributions at the end of the walk.

2. Take a camera

Although video cameras are discouraged, visitors are allowed to take photographs of the Victorian headstones that were fashionable at the time. The overgrown headstones are beautifully spooky. Visitors should note all the decorations on the tombs face downwards, such as torches and swords on obelisks, as a mark of respect.

3. Wear comfortable shoes

Drainage work was underway in 2009 in a bid to prevent damage to graves from water-logging and tree growth, so wear shoes with good grips if you are visiting after poor weather. As the former owners of the cemetery went bankrupt, trees and bushes have grown over some of the graves. Although some students have been allowed to locate some of the more out of the way graves, the tour will not take visitors off the path. It is a tight squeeze anyway, as cutting costs meant graves were created inches apart.

4. Don’t be disappointed

It is rare to be able to see the graves of Rosetti and his wife, as the packed nature of the burial ground would mean visitors clambering over other graves and fighting through bushes and trees. However there are photographs of these resting places in a book available for sale at the entrance to the cemetery. The Friends of Highgate Cemetery are working on an extensive renovation programme to cut back some of the vegetation and restore headstones.

5. Some of the highlights

The resting place of the man who invented the Hackney Carriage, which has also become known as the bomber taxi; a businessman who brought exotic animals to the UK in dramatic (and often dangerous) circus shows, a feminist writer who receives fresh flowers for her woes, a Jewish aristocrat who built a mausoleum to taunt cemetery visitors and famous family crypts.

Photo of graves in Highgate Cemetery, London, UK, by Blu_Blue