“Workers of all lands unite”, is the proclamation on the headstone of the renowned Prussian (modern Germany) philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, author and socialist revolutionary Karl Marx (1818-1883).

That’s quite a CV and indeed Marx is credited with being one of the most influential people in history, his ideas and ideals forming the basis of Communism.

Due to his revolutionary beliefs he was banished from his homeland, spending much of his life exiled in the UK (from 1949), where he researched much of his work at the British Library in London.

It was here that in the early 1860s that he published his most famous work, the three volume Das Kapital and the Theories of Surplus Value, the bible for generations of socialists and communists ever since.

We visited Highgate on a lovely Autumnal day, paying £4 to visit the East Cemetery where other notable graves include those for Mary Ann Cross (better known as author George Eliot), punk pioneer Malcolm McLaren and popular TV presenter and prankster Jeremy Beadle.

The West Cemetery can be visited by organised tour only costing £12 (includes entry to the East Cemetery) and it is here that the more architecturally interesting sites are situated such as the Chapel, Colonnade, Egyptian Avenue, Circle of Lebanon, Terrace Catacombs and the mausoleum of Julius Beer. 

That’s one for next time for us……..