★★★★★ 5.0
Discover
Brompton Cemetery
That chapel carpet once hid a secret - when workers lifted it during a 2014 restoration, they uncovered original Victorian flooring made from Bath and York stone arranged in perfect radial patterns, untouched since 1839. You're standing in London's first government-controlled cemetery, seized from private owners in 1852 after they ran out of money building this grandiose vision. Architect Benjamin Baud designed Brompton as an open-air cathedral modeled directly on Rome's St. Peter's Square - that central avenue you see is actually called the "nave," running straight from Old Brompton Road to those sweeping colonnades. Beneath your feet lie over 205,000 people from 40 different countries, including suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst and Dr. John Snow, who saved London by proving cholera spreads through water. What was once Lord Kensington's flat market gardens now hosts both the dead and London's most surprising urban wildlife sanctuary.
Did You Know?
- Brompton Cemetery is one of London’s 'Magnificent Seven' Victorian garden cemeteries, designed in the 1840s to relieve overcrowded city churchyards and address public health crises—its layout was inspired by St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, with a central nave, colonnades, and a domed chapel creating the effect of an 'open-air cathedral' that blends grand architecture with lush, landscaped gardens.
- Beneath the cemetery’s colonnades lie extensive catacombs intended as a cheaper alternative to traditional burial—though only about 500 of the thousands of available spaces were ever sold, making them a striking but little-used architectural feature; today, these catacombs can only be explored on guided tours, adding an element of mystery and adventure for visitors.
- A local legend claims that one of the cemetery’s ornate Victorian tombs—the mausoleum of Hannah Courtoy—conceals a secret 'time machine' built using knowledge from Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, a story that captures the Victorian fascination with Egyptology and the occult, and offers a fun, imaginative tale for families and curious explorers.