( CNN ) -- `` When a man is tired of London , he is tired of life , '' memorably proclaimed Samuel Johnson . Whereupon that man -- presumably -- is buried in London . Lucky him ( or her ) . The city has some of the best , most atmospheric , cemeteries in the world . Luminaries from Karl Marx ( Highgate Cemetery ) to the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst ( Brompton Cemetery ) to Johnson himself ( Westminster Abbey , which is really not your everyday resting place ) are buried here . Being famous , though , does n't guarantee an interesting gravestone . Some of the best tombs belong to the largely forgotten , people who nonetheless seemed to have had big plans for the hereafter . Tom Sayers : The big sleep . Highgate is the most famous of London 's great Victorian cemeteries , bursting with big names and bombastic memorials . Yet in choosing her favorite gravestone , Catharine Arnold , author of `` Necropolis -- London and its Dead , '' picks someone removed from the worlds of literature and the arts , with which Highgate is normally associated . Tom Sayers ' tomb , guarded by his `` immortal dog ... faithful to the last [ is ] a great example of Victorian animal memorial art , '' she says . Sayers was a bare-knuckle boxer , whose final fight is considered to have been in effect the first boxing world championship . It ended in chaos , but won him an army of fans . An estimated 100,000 people turned up to his funeral in 1865 , with his dog , Lion , as chief mourner . Highgate Cemetery , Swain 's Lane , Highgate . Tours Monday-Friday , 1:45 p.m. , Saturday and Sunday , 11 a.m.-4 p.m ; Â£12.00 adults , Â£6 children ; +44 208 340 1834 . Andrew Ducrow : Colossus of tombstones . Kensal Green is among the most formal of great London cemeteries , but it still has tombs wacky enough to get the deads ' net curtains twitching -- or so you imagine . The flamboyant Victorian circus owner Andrew Ducrow -- the so-called `` Colossus of Equestrians '' -- could n't decide which classical theme he wanted on the family tomb , so he went for them all . Egyptian sphinxes jostle with Greek capitals and Roman tablets lean against Gothic angels in what Catharine Arnold describes as a `` suitably OTT monument to a larger than life showman . '' The Builder magazine merely calls it `` ponderous coxcombery . '' Kensal Green Cemetery , Harrow Road , Kensal Green ; +44 208 969 0152 . William and Agnes Loudon : Six feet above . The immaculate graveyard of St. John the Baptist church in the London neighborhood of Pinner , a former hamlet , has its fair share of carved skulls and weathered inscriptions to once-cherished octogenarians -- and one very odd memorial . The legend holds that William Loudon and his wife , Agnes , inherited some money , but the bequest would end when they were buried . The obvious solution was to stick their coffin in an enormous stone wedge , making it practically impossible to bury -- and also quite difficult to look at . It was erected in 1809 by their son , John Loudon , later an influential voice in the cemetery-preservation movement . Pinner Parish Church , Church Lane , Pinner , Middlesex . Sir Richard Burton : Kama Sutra forever . Sir Richard Burton is best known for his saucy translations of `` The One Thousand and One Nights '' and for publishing `` The Kama Sutra '' in English . Although his wife , Isabel , a devout Catholic , claimed to be mortified by his interests , she appeared to celebrate them on his death by erecting a mausoleum in the shape of an Arabian tent in the incongruous surroundings of a suburban churchyard . Throughout the rest of her life , Isabel would take afternoon tea and hold the odd sÃ©ance inside the tomb before joining her husband in there on her own demise . Nosy visitors can peer through a window in the roof at two dusty coffins surrounded by lanterns , camel bells and murals of the night sky . St Mary Magdalen Church , 61 North Worple Way , Mortlake ; + 44 208 876 1326 . Frank Bostock : Guarded by London 's loveliest lion . Many London cemeteries have a lion -- animals of all stripes are well represented in its graveyards -- but perhaps the most elegant has since 1912 slept in the jungle that is overgrown Abney Park in Stoke Newington . The beautiful stone-carved creature commemorates menagerist Frank Bostock , who traveled the world with big cats , occasionally branching out to camels and hyenas . `` People stroke the Abney Park lion 's left paw for luck -- the marble is bright and shiny as a result , '' says Catharine Arnold . Abney Park Cemetery , Stoke Newington High Street , Stoke Newington ; +44 207 275 7557 . Thomas Hardy : The tree of death . Acclaimed author Thomas Hardy 's first job , in the 1860s , was at St. Pancras Old Church , where he helped to exhume thousands of skeletons from the cemetery in the way of the new Midland Railway line . The bones were reburied , but Hardy was left with the gravestones . He got rid of some by stacking them around a young ash tree . Whether or not he meant the solution to be permanent , roots and stone are today completely fused . The ancient churchyard , once a haunt of grave robbers , is now one of the most peaceful places in busy St. Pancras . St Pancras Old Church , Pancras Road , London . Hannah Courtoy : The spinster 's 'time machine ' `` It looks like Dr. Who 's TARDIS as designed by the architects of the Death Star , '' says author and publisher Mark Pilkington , who 's been investigating time machine claims about the mysterious last resting place of three Victorian spinsters . Like so many 19th-century British tombs , this one in Brompton Cemetery is Egyptian in style . What distinguishes it are the strange hieroglyphic carvings and a twisted monogram on the door . Built in 1852 for unmarried Hannah Courtoy and her daughters , no plans for the tomb have been found and it 's the only monument in Brompton Cemetery for which no key can be found . The time machine story supposedly dates to a mischievous 1998 press release . Brompton Cemetery , Fulham Road ; +44 207 352 1201 . Douglas Adams : Bare bones . You could n't find a stronger or more stylish contrast to the dominant grandiose tendency in gravestone design than the plain monument to the bestselling comic sci-fi author Douglas Adams . Located in the newer , eastern part of Highgate Cemetery , the tomb belonging to the author of `` The Hitchhiker 's Guide to the Galaxy '' has merely his name , the year of his death ( 2001 ) and a description : `` Writer . '' Highgate Cemetery details above .
The best tombs in London belong to the famous and lesser known alike . Explorer Richard Burton rests in extravagant digs . One coffin hangs permanently in the air . Author Douglas Adams wastes few words on his headstone .