Death: it’s not all bad news. Take a stroll round one of London’s “cities of the dead” and you may actually enjoy what you find. Far from the disease-ridden corpse pits that once littered the capital’s churchyards, a number of picturesque garden cemeteries were commissioned after the passing of the 1832 parliamentary bill that encouraged the building of more burial grounds outside the city of London.
We take you through a tour of the Magnificent Seven, as these new burial grounds were known, all of which are open to the public today and treasured by horror-lovers and those of a maudlin nature alike—and feature more famous Londoners than you’ll see waxed up at Madame Tussauds.
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Practically a designer cemetery, this fashionable burial ground features extravagant Victorian architecture and mausoleums, plus the grave of Karl Marx and 850 other people “of note.”
Ready, set…go! See who can find the tombstones of Victorian cookery expert Mrs. Beeton and gallerist Sir Henry Tate first in this burial ground overblown with Gothic Revival architecture.
Less extravagant than other burial sites, Stoke Newington’s installment is one of only two cemeteries in the city for non-conformists (the other being Tower Hamlets) and reflects the area’s history of religious dissidents.
Managed by The Royal Parks, this cemetery is a cultural historian’s dream, with the likes of Beatrix Potter, Emmeline Pankhurst and Henry Cole, founder of the Royal Albert Hall.
London’s first commercial cemetery is also the oldest, built in 1833, but brims with life with more than 33 species of birds and other mammals.
We think that the Nunhead is the most attractive of the seven burial grounds, with 52-acres of lush landscape featuring stunning Victorian memorial architecture and exotic plants.
What a nightmare for grave diggers: The most working-class cemetery reputedly houses graves dug 40 feet deep and piled 30 bodies high.
Highgate Cemetery
Dead famous
Escapism
West Norwood Cemetery
A tomb with a view
Escapism
Abney Park
The non-conformer
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Brompton Cemetery
Super furry animals
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Kensal Green Cemetery
All souls
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Nunhead Cemetery
52-acres of tranquility
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Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park
Public property
Escapism
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