Abney Park Cemetery

The lowdown

Abney Park is one of the Magnificent Seven, the great ring of cemeteries built around Victorian London, and it is the wildest of them. Long ago left to nature, it is now a free woodland nature reserve where the graves and monuments are being slowly swallowed by ivy, brambles and self-seeded trees.

Wandering the paths feels like stumbling into a lost world. Stone angels lean at angles, lichen-covered headstones tilt into the undergrowth, and a crumbling Gothic chapel sits abandoned at the centre of it all. It is atmospheric, a little melancholy and genuinely beautiful, especially in autumn.

It is also a proper wildlife haven in the middle of Hackney, full of birds, bats and butterflies, with volunteers keeping the paths open and the history alive. A free, quiet, slightly haunting green escape a few steps off a busy high street.