West Norwood Cemetery

The lowdown

West Norwood is one of the Magnificent Seven, the great ring of Victorian cemeteries built around London, and it climbs a steep hill, which gives it drama and long views the flatter ones lack. It is free to wander, a forest of leaning monuments, ivy and grand tombs.

Its showpiece is the Greek Orthodox necropolis near the top, a cluster of opulent mausolea built by wealthy Greek merchant families, some of the finest funerary architecture in the country. The cemetery is dotted with elaborate Gothic tombs and crumbling angels.

The names are a roll-call of Victorian achievement, Isabella Beeton of cookery-book fame, the engineer Sir Henry Tate of the sugar and the galleries, and inventors and industrialists by the dozen. A free, melancholy and beautiful walk through the age that built modern Britain.