Highgate Cemetery

Group experience company, Groups Direct, has just announced the launch of its brand new tour, The Mourning Tour.

The Mourning Tour is a 90 minute guided tour that takes visitors around the famous Highgate Cemetery.

On the tour, visitors will be able to spot the graves of famous people in the West Wing, including: director Jane Arden; painter Lucian Freud; members of Charles Dickens’ family; printer and publisher of the London Standard newspaper, George Samuel Bentley; actress Jean Simmons; and actor Patrick Wymark.

Groups will then have time to explore the East Wing, where the graves of philosopher Karl Marx, comedian Max Wall, author Douglas Adams, and others, can be found.

Visitors taking the tour will also find out about the architecture of the tombs, as well as the Victorian attitude towards death. 

In addition, the tour will take in the Egyptian Avenue and Circle of Lebanon.

The Egyptian Avenue is edged with obelisks, and is lined with Egyptian styled tombs that date back to the 1830s. The Circle of Lebanon, meanwhile, has an ancient cedar tree in the heart of it and is surrounded by more tombs from the 1800s.

Hidden in the trees, visitors will find secret paths to historical graves that are covered in ivy as well as chapel that was built in 1839 and is still used.

The tour also includes a two course lunch with tea or coffee.

The tour is suitable for groups of 10 or more.

More about Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery was built in 1839, after a statute was passed in parliament to open new cemeteries to make more space for the increase in deaths in the London area at the time.

It has two chapels, one for the Church of England and one for other faiths. Both are housed within a Tudor Gothic styled building.

There are around 53,000 graves in Highgate Cemetery, many of which are those of fame.

For more information visit www.groupsdirect.co.uk.    

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