Nunhead Cemetery

The lowdown

Nunhead is the least known of the Magnificent Seven, the great ring of cemeteries built around Victorian London, and that is exactly its charm. Opened in 1840 and long left to nature, its fifty-two acres in southeast London have become a beautiful free woodland of leaning headstones and ivy-wrapped angels.

Paths wind through deep, overgrown sections where the graves vanish into the trees, past a roofless Gothic Anglican chapel that stands ruined and atmospheric at the heart of it. Volunteers from the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery keep it open and run free guided tours, but you can simply wander in any day for nothing.

Walk up the main avenue and there is a surprise. A gap in the trees has been deliberately kept clear to frame a long, distant view of St Paul's Cathedral, miles away across the city, a quiet free reward at the top of the hill.