Those of you who have followed my travel writing for any length of time know that I’m a taphophile: a cemetery enthusiast, a graveyard junkie, a tombstone tourist. I enjoy cemeteries for many reasons.
- They’re filled not just with the bodies of those who have passed on, but also with history and landscape architecture.
- They’re places of quiet reflection and serene beauty.
- Most importantly, each gravesite represents a life lived, and all of the untold stories encapsulated therein.
Highgate Cemetery, one of London’s “Magnificent Seven” boneyards, offered all of these attributes.
And for the end of a trip, a visit to a place of many endings somehow seemed an appropriate way to say goodbye to London.
Highgate Cemetery (and the magnificent other six) were built to accommodate the growing numbers of people who came to (and died in) the city during the Industrial Revolution.
Many of those who permanently moved into Highgate were wealthy, as represented by the mansion-like mausoleums that made the place look more like a town than a graveyard in some areas.
You might have heard of some of the residents….
Our tour guide even took us into the catacombs, where some coffins lay on shelves, out in the open.
And by no means was the cemetery only full of death. There were flowers everywhere, both newly sprouted and recently placed.
To clear our heads, we strolled across nearby Hampstead Heath and found this lovely view on Parliament Hill.
After returning to the historic center of the city, we found a few final sights (including some other endings).
London Spring 
Thank you for sharing with all of us! I loved all of it. Safe travels home ♥️
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