The dead centre of North London

A trip to Highgate Cemetery is highly recommended to any visitor who escapes the more obvious charms of Covent Garden and makes it to the wilds of North London.

As reintroducees (is that a word? Let's make it so) to London, TLOML and I had a mooch around there ourselves. It's pretty close to Fox Corner, so I plan on making future visitors look around it too.

Sightseeing in a cemetery sounds a bit macabre, doesn't it? Not as ghoulish as taking the Titanic memorial cruise, perhaps. But a similar kind of tourism.

Still, if you find the rituals we use to make sense of death interesting, then it's worth a nosy. TLOML and I love a bit of macabre. Anything from La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, to Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One piques our interest.

If you like a bit of wanton gothism, you'll enjoy it too. Rampant with ivy, gravestones dislodged into a slump by the roots of ancient trees, angels with missing hands: it's a visual treat.

Highgate also has some good interesting historical figures buried there. Karl Marx is the obvious one but my personal favourite is that hero of light entertainment, famous prankster Jeremy 'Beadle's About!' Beadle.

And if you like a good gag,  it's almost worth a trip just for this gravestone: