West Cemetery

Tours

Admission to the West Cemetery is by guided tour only. The tour lasts around 70 minutes and is in English. The tour takes place even if it’s raining and the paths are steep and sometimes muddy so please do wear appropriate footwear. 

Photography is allowed with small hand-held camera for personal use only. No tripods. No filming. No food or drink. Strong winds or icy conditions may require us to cancel the tour for safety reasons. If we are forced to cancel you will receive a full refund.

Ticket prices
Adults £12; Children 8 to 17 £6. Unfortunately we cannot accommodate children under 8 on the tour.  The ticket price includes entrance to the East Cemetery on the day of your tour. Tickets are not refundable or exchangeable. 

Note: Karl Marx is buried in Highgate Cemetery East; his grave is not visited on this tour. George Michael's grave is not visited on the tour. Tour content varies. If you are interested in a particular grave, please ask before buying your ticket.

Saturday and Sunday

You cannot book. Tours normally run every half hour from 11am - 4pm (3pm from November to February). Tickets are sold from around 10.45am for all tours that day. Places are limited.

Monday to Friday 

Booking is essential. Tickets go on sale five weeks in advance. If the date you require is not listed, please check back later. We don't charge a booking fee. 

There is normally one tour at 1.45pm Monday to Fridays but when we can we run more. On bank holidays tours run all day. 

Group visits

We can organise tours of the Cemetery for private groups of up to 40 people.

Group tours can be taken at a more leisurely pace than our public tours. They last about 90 minutes and include an extended tour of the West Cemetery and a brief introduction to the East Cemetery. Visitors may stay in the East as long as they wish after the tour until the published closing time.

Group tours are not available at weekends. They are available all year round on weekday mornings only. It's best to make your initial enquiry by telephone so we can let you know if we can accommodate your request, and then follow this up with a booking form. Our group tours are very popular so you'll need to book as far in advance as possible.

The minimum cost is £120 and this covers up to 10 people with additional spaces charged at £12 a head. There is a non-refundable deposit of the minimum charge of £120 to secure the date which is payable within 2 weeks of the initial booking.

For further information please download our booking form.

Egyptian Avenue

The main path suddenly opens out in front of the Egyptian gateway, flanked by a pair of massive obelisks. 

When the cemetery was founded, interest in ancient Egypt was still very strong, encouraged by Napoleon's campaigns. 

The association of the Egyptian style of architecture with the memorialization of the dead was a natural one. 

An avenue, lined with tombs, leads up to the Circle of Lebanon

Terrace Catacombs

The Terrace Catacombs take the position of the terrace of the gardens of Ashurst House, demolished in 1830. From here there were splendid views of London, now mostly obscured by trees. 

These brick catacombs with a cast-iron traceried terrace balustrade were part of the original buildings of the cemetery in 1838-9. 

Inside, there is a brick-vaulted gallery more than 80 yards long, lit by oculi set in the terrace. It is lined with separate recesses, each large enough to take a single coffin end on, from floor to ceiling down both sides of length, 825 in all.

The catacombs could be used as a permanent resting place or temporarily whilst a plot was chosen. Fans of construction history get excited because the terrace is thought to be the earliest surviving asphalted building in England.