Searches

With 170,000 people buried in 53,000 graves at Highgate Cemetery, finding the person you are looking for may not be easy.

Finding a grave ... Highgate Cemetery East and West

Highgate Cemetery is in two parts, the East side and the West side. Visitors may wander the paths, but  must not for their own safety walk on or touch monuments. This means that if the person you are looking for is not buried in an accessible location, a location search is essential. Although the cemetery is divided into squares, there is no indication of these on the ground. It is unlikely that you will find a grave easily by yourself, if at all. It is often far from straightforward! Grave numbers themselves give no clue to where people are in the cemetery as they were allocated in order of purchase, not according to the location.

Memorials

Memorials are the responsibility of the registered owner and not of the cemetery. Not all graves have memorials, and memorials were not permitted on ‘common’ or ‘public’ graves, so sometimes there is nothing much to look at. This can make it very difficult to find a grave!

Grave ownership and admission charges

Every private grave has at least one named registered owner. Location searches are free for the registered owner of the grave being searched for. If you believe you may be entitled to own a grave, please ask for a copy of our guidance on Owning and transferring burial rights. A fee is payable for the transfer of ownership. 
If you are not the registered owner of a grave you will need to buy a ticket to visit Highgate Cemetery, unless you have a grave pass. Registered owners are provided with passes which give free access to their grave.

Our £40 grave search service includes:

• A  search of the Register
• A copy of entry in the Burial Register
• Digital photographs of the grave
• A copy of the original cemetery map showing the location of the grave.
• A map showing the location in the context of the cemetery as a whole
• Clear access to the grave
• An appointment for you and up to three others to be accompanied to the grave, normally on a weekday, excepting Friday afternoons

Before you book a grave search, we recommend that you check our online register to make sure that the person you are seeking is buried at Highgate Cemetery. As our database was transcribed from handwritten records it contains many errors (please let us know should you find any!). If the result does not come up as expected try using 'Broad' rather than 'Exact'. You can narrow down the results by burial year and by age at death. If you decide to visit, please make sure you have read the information above; it may help you avoid a wasted journey. Consult the online burial register.  

Book a grave search

Copies of our registers up to 1975 are held at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre, Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8PA where they may be consulted for free. Note that you will probably still need to pay for a location search to find the grave.

For all burials from 1975 onwards, please contact our Registrar directly on 020 8347 2471 to confirm the procedure and appropriate fee.