Highgate Cemetery

Our tour of the West Cemetery was fascinating, made remarkable by the knowledge and expertise of our tour guide Peter Mills, who was truly excellent.

From start to finish, we were captivated by Peter's guide to the history of Highgate Cemetery. Drawing upon his insights and experience as a historian and his superb skills as a public speaker, Peter set the scene, explaining the people who built, visited and are buried in the Cemetery in a way which immersed us in their times and the values with which they lived. We were particularly impressed with the attention and recognition Peter gave to the finer details of people's lives during the tour. Peter's profound accounts of the individual stories of the famous, controversial, every day and less fortunate people who are buried there, really brought the manner and places in which these individuals are buried and the age in which they lived to life (no mean feat in a graveyard). By the end of the tour, we were enthralled.

Our visit has been one of the best historical tours we have taken in the UK and we would thoroughly recommend a visit to the Cemetery.

Highgate cemetery was on our list of 'places to see in London' for some time and we finally managed to visit in May 2021. Having pre-booked tickets online (you need to decide on a timed entry but can arrive 15mins early or 30mins late) we initially visited the East side (where amongst others, you can find Karl Marx' burial places). It's a magical, tranquil place where you can wander around on your own (aided by a free map at the entrance). Tickets are £4.5 per person (and give you access to both parts of the cemetery). The very friendly volunteers suggested we also take a guided tour for the West side of the cemetery and managed to find us two places for the next tour (which is just under £10 per person). Angie, our exceptionally knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide then took us on a walk around this older part of the cemetery. Her explanations and pointers were incredibly useful and we would have missed so much without her guidance. We would highly recommend to book the guided tour when visiting Highgate for the first time and are really grateful to all the volunteers for the brilliant work, advice and just being generally super helpful. We'll certainly visit again!

We spent a few hours visiting Highgate, walking the winding paths and taking a docent led tour (fee required and booked online) with guide “Martin.” Marin did an excellent job, was funny and relayed insightful information about the cemetery and some of the people buried therein. We enjoyed our time here and highly recommend visiting— we would return.

Top tip I would give is to book in advance!! I had the misfortune of making a trek to the Highgate cemetery only to find it was tour only and that it had sold out on that day.

The woman at the west cemetery was not very helpful and very sharp with me and a friend. We paid entry to the west side only for that day despite her impatient manner and accusations that my debit card wasn't working because it didn't go through on contactless Given it was not busy her attitude really didn't make sense. It almost stopped me returning, but the history had me intrigued.

Thank goodness I didn't let first impressions ruin the cemetery. I decided to book the tour which included both sides of the cemetery. The tour guide was very friendly and informative. I learned a great deal of history regarding death and burial throughout the years.

The cemetery on the east is well worth the cost and visit. There is infact one part of the cemetery used in the fantastic beasts movies.

Would love to explore the history further and learn more about it's history. Each grave seemed to tell a story.

Highgate Cemetery is one of the Magnificant Seven private cemeteries around London. These cemeteries were built to alleviate overcrowding in existing parish grounds. The west cemetery was opened in 1939 and the east was opened in 1854.

When I visited, only the east cemetery was opened - note that, at this stage, you have to pre book a timed ticket online. You can prebook when you get there but you risk that time being fully booked.

The east cemetery was beautiful. The graves had that overgrown feeling, with plants every where which, if anything, added to the beauty of the place. I enjoyed (as much as you can in a cemetery) finding 'famous graves'. Karl Marx's grave is hard to miss as it's so huge. However, his original grave was slightly more hidden away (get the right path and pay attention to the graves - then you'll see it). Also, Douglas Adams (aka Hitchhitkers Guide to the Galaxy author) was buried here. If you're looking for his grave - follow the map at the entrance and look beyond the first row.

Some of the gravestones where very different to what you'd expect to see so they are well worth the very cheap entry fee. For example, check out the Caulfield gravestone.

Came here on a Sunday, this worked well as we were able to park in the street.
We had booked a tour of the west cemetery and the ticket includes entrance to the east.
The tour was well worth it, being informative without being too long or boring.
The cemetery had been left to ruin and alot of work is being done to restore it, hopefully they won't go too far and make it too clinical, as it is there is a good mix of restored areas alongside the overgrown and wonky.
After the tour you can wander freely round the west side, paper maps are available to guide you round. We then made a brief visit to the east. This is newer and less overgrown and here you are left to find your way around by yourself.
East tickets are available at a lower cost, but the west is more beautiful in my opinion

I had no idea what to expect!
I had seen this cemetery many times on TV and always fancied having a look.
I turned up thinking I could just walk in and have a mooch around, that'll teach me for not researching in advance.
I was a bit sceptical about a 'Tour' around a cemetery but as it was the only way, and I had walked up quite a steep hill to get there I thought 'What the hell'
It was worth every penny!
The American, volunteer guide was funny and knowledgeable with some great stories to tell about the graves, history and architecture.
I know this kind of thing isn't for everyone but if it is your kind of thingYou'll love it!

I'll start with some information about actually getting to the cemetery. We took the tube from Euston to Archway, after taking a decent walk from Marleybone to Euston. Euston is going through some renovations because of HS2 currently, so getting inside was a little awkward. From Euston we reached archway and took a long walk uphill passing through a nice park on the way up, there is also a McDonald's on the way up and a few pubs. I recommend that people give themselves a decent length of time to walk to Highgate cemetery due to the hill. Also there is a park on the way if you go with children and need to entertain them. It was easy entering the cemetery especially since we pre-booked the whole visit. We only entered the east cemetery as our main focus was to visit Marx. We didn't take a guided tour. It was fun, of course it was fun, we were visiting the main man Marx, the guy who wrote a revolutionary manifesto. He surprisingly buried with a few family members and surrounding the grave there are many other graves belonging to socialists. I advise visitors to take a walk all around the cemetery as the statues are really nice to look at. Anyhow I think I've talked for long enough, I do recommend a visit. I'd first heard about the gravesite from Abroad in Japan, a YouTube channel which made a doccumentary about his friend Natsuki. I do recommend visiting marx, ironically or unironically it is still worthwhile.

First of all, the volunteer manning the desk today ( 14 may ) deserves employer of the month or whatever recognition is going ! What an enthusiastic, friendly guy, a wonderful start to the visit. He provided lots of local info for us ( the 2 ladies from up north ) and was a joy to talk to ,
Now….the graveyard itself, it’s exactly as you hope it will be, so atmospheric. I have visited many graveyards , and this exceeds them all, even the one in Glasgow and New Orleans . The huge mausoleums are fascinating but every twisting path leads to something of interest. One regret, due to time limitations we did not do the guided tour so we relied on the free guide, and I do think that was a mistake. The history and stories attached to the site would have been fascinating ,
Anyone travelling from kings cross it was a straight forward walk from archway tube station , through Waterlow park . Bout 20 mins

Guided tour (and East cemetery after). My teens loved it. Educational, cool, spooky, unusual, insta-worthy (important for the teens), informed, thought-provoking, casual. And very inexpensive :) Worth exploring the ancient villages of Highgate (5 mins walk), especially the many olde pubs (alcohol drinking not required), and Hampstead (ditto on the pubs). Go via the Spaniards pub (between Highgate and Hampstead) if possible.