Events

We run all sorts of events throughout the year. If you'd like to hear about them first, why not join the Friends of Highgate Cemetery, or sign up for our e-newsletter? Subscribe

Drugs In Victorian Britain

Thursday 11 April 2019 £10Book now

A Talk by Mike Jay

At the beginning of Victoria’s reign, the only mind-altering drugs widely available in Britain were alcohol and opium. By its end, anyone could walk into a high street chemist and buy cocaine and cannabis in all manner of pills, lozenges and tinctures, or morphine and heroin complete with hypodermic injection kits. How did today’s illicit drugs arrive in Britain, who were the first people to use them, and how did they spread into the culture at large?
Mike Jay curated High Society: mind-altering drugs in history and culture at Wellcome Collection and wrote the accompanying book. He is also the author of Emperors of Dreams: drugs in the nineteenth century. He writes regularly for the London Review of Books, Wall Street Journal and Literary Review.

7.30pm, doors open 7.00pm. ticket includes a glass of wine

The Marx Memorial Lecture: ‘Marxian Political Economy, 201’

Thursday 9 May 2019 £12Book now

A Talk by Ben Fine

The two-hundredth anniversary of Marx’s birth coincided more or less with the tenth anniversary of the worst economic crisis of global capitalism in living memory. This has been followed by failure to renew sustained growth and universal pessimism over the prospects of avoiding yet another financial crisis and economic disaster. This all raises what insights Marxist political economy can offer to explain the current malaise, and to what extent Marx’s own thinking remains insightful more than 150 years since he published the first volume of Capital. These themes will be taken up in a lecture that also addresses the decisive role being played by ‘financialisation’ in the global and national economies, and in our daily lives.
Ben Fine is Professor of Economics, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is co-author of Marx’s Capital, Pluto Press, now in its sixth edition, and has previously been awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize and the Gunner Myrdal Prize for other books.

7.30pm, doors open 7.00pm. ticket includes a glass of wine

One Day Stonemasonry Course

Saturday 15 June 2019 £95Book now

Cemetery stonemason Neil Luxton leads a day's course on basic stonemasonry techniques.

Starting with a tour around some of the West Cemetery's monuments to see some notable examples of stonemasonry, Having supplied you with a stone slab and tools, Neil will help you with your design. You will then be taken through the techniques you need to be able to carve your design into the stone, and off you go... Throughout the afternoon, Neil will keep a close eye on your progress, giving advice and showing you exactly what you should be doing. You will end up with a carving you can take home.

Opening times

Open daily except 25 and 26 December. Different opening arrangements apply to the East and West.

East Cemetery

The East Cemetery is where Karl Marx is buried. Visitors may roam freely on this side, but there is an entrance charge.

Daily:
10am to 5pm (March to October)
10am to 4pm (November to February)
last admission 30 minutes before closing.

We may close for short periods to facilitate funerals. In addition, for your safety, strong winds or icy weather may occasionally require us to close the cemetery to visitors.

Admission: £4 adults, children under 18 and Members free. School groups £1 per child.

Find out more about the East Cemetery including our occasional tours.

West Cemetery

Admission to the West Cemetery is by guided tour only. For further information and to book, see the 'Tours' section at Visit > West Cemetery

Please remember to allow sufficient time to visit the East Cemetery if your tour is late in the day.

How to get here

Our address is Highgate Cemetery, Swain’s Lane, London N6 6PJ

Download our handy map

By tube

ARCHWAY tube, High Barnet branch, Northern line. (Don’t go to Highgate tube – it's a much longer walk!). Take the Highgate Hill exit. Then either take a bus (210,143, 271) two stops to Waterlow Park or walk up Highgate Hill. It’s then a very pleasant five minute stroll through Waterlow Park to our gates.

The tube system is often affected by engineering works and station closures. Please check your journey in advance at www.tfl.gov.uk.

By bus

C2 stops at Parliament Hill Fields. C11 stops at Brookfield Park. Buses 143, 210 and 271 stop at Waterlow Park on Highgate Hill.

By road

There is no off-street visitor parking. Parking restrictions are in place on the surrounding streets between 10am and 12 noon Monday to Friday. After those times and at weekends, on-street parking is free.

Note that there is no access to Swain’s Lane from the north.

Bicycle

There is a bicycle rack outside the West Cemetery gates.

Contact us

Email info@highgatecemetery.org

To find out whether someone is buried here, go to Searches

Telephone enquiries

Monday to Friday
General enquiries 020 8340 1834
Burials, memorials, grave ownership 020 8347 2471
Filming or photography requests 020 8347 2472
Group visits 020 8347 2475
Volunteering 020 8347 2474

You should know...

The cemetery can get muddy underfoot, so do wear sensible shoes.

Photography

Still photography of graves is allowed for personal use only. We don't allow the cemetery to be used as a backdrop for unrelated subjects such as fashion shoots. No video. You can use a tripod, but not on tours.

Animals

No animals are permitted with the exception of assistance dogs.

Accessibility

Visitors to the West cemetery should be aware that the paths are steep, and the tour route also includes two flights of stairs. The East cemetery is on a gentler slope with no steps and predominantly tarmac paths and is more easily wheelchair accessible. A small amount of disabled parking is available outside the cemetery’s entrance on Swain’s Lane. There is a disabled toilet in the West Cemetery. For further information, please contact the office in advance of your visit.

More rules

You can download a full set of our rules here.

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