Sir Richard Burton's Tent-Tomb

The lowdown

In an ordinary Catholic churchyard in suburban Mortlake stands one of the strangest tombs in Britain, a full-size Bedouin tent carved entirely from stone. It holds the explorer, soldier, linguist and adventurer Sir Richard Burton, who among countless exploits disguised himself to make the forbidden pilgrimage to Mecca, and his wife Isabel, who designed the tent to honour his love of the desert.

Round the back a small window and a ladder let you peer inside, where the coffins lie surrounded by the relics and camel bells Isabel placed there. It is free, deeply odd and genuinely moving, a slice of Victorian wanderlust marooned in south-west London.