Power & Politics

A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.

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Highgate Cemetery

A modest family grave, dug up and monumentalised in 1956 into a Cold War landmark.

Ideas & memory

Photo by Panyd The muffin is not subtle, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Also in What’s On and Outdoors & Nature and Literary London and Harry Potter.

Marx came to London after the revolutions of 1848 failed and never left: thirty-four years of it, poverty in Soho, research in the British Museum reading room, a slow move north as things improved. He was buried in 1883 in an ordinary family plot. What visitors photograph is not that grave. In 1956 the Communist Party of Great Britain had the remains moved to a prominent spot and raised Laurence Bradshaw's enormous bronze head over the words 'Workers of all lands unite'. It became a place of pilgrimage and has been attacked more than once. Treat it as the end of a London biography rather than a shrine and the cemetery around it gets far more interesting.

Where
Swain's Lane, N6 6PJ
Nearest station
Archway · 10 min walk

Coming up

Hours

Monday10:00 – 17:00
Tuesday10:00 – 17:00
Wednesday10:00 – 17:00
Thursday10:00 – 17:00
Friday10:00 – 17:00
Saturday10:00 – 17:00
Sunday10:00 – 17:00

Hours from the page that lists them, checked 3 September 2026.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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