Highgate Cemetery, London

Highgate Cemetery is a burial ground whose wooded setting makes it feel like a reserve as much as a memorial landscape. Its layout was created by architect Stephen Geary, and the grounds extend across the West and East sides of Swain’s Lane. Around 170,000 people rest here in approximately 53,000 graves, including burials in coffins and urns.

The cemetery opened in 1839 as part of London’s plan for seven large cemeteries beyond the crowded inner districts. Its West Side is known for ornate tombs, vaults, and paths winding through the hillside. Look toward the Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon: both are Grade I listed structures, and they give this part of the cemetery an architectural drama that sits within the trees and wild growth.

The grounds support birds and small mammals, including foxes, while many trees, shrubs, and wildflowers have grown without deliberate planting. Michael Faraday is buried here with his wife Sarah, in the Dissenters section. That combination of celebrated graves, elaborate funerary architecture, and untamed habitat is what makes Highgate Cemetery so distinctive.