Colin Burgess Raised His Family in a London Cemetery for 15 Years

A Unique Living Arrangement

Takeout deliveries often halt at the gates, with drivers unwilling to walk the path to the house. Poppy Burgess, 18, who is studying health and social care, noted the peculiarity of her upbringing: You don’t come across people living in a cemetery very often. I always have to explain it to people— they think it’s really weird, but they think it’s really cool too. Despite the oddity, Burgess has worked to maintain normalcy for his children, ensuring they had space to play in the lodge’s garden and avoiding activities like dog walks or quad bike rides on the cemetery’s paths.

Death as a Daily Reality

The space has become a haven for nature, with parakeets, foxes, and even a badger roaming the grounds. Wildflower seeds have been planted to attract pollinators, and long grasses line older graves, creating an ecosystem that contrasts with the solemnity of the site. It’s a fantastic ice-breaker, he said, though the reality of his situation remains deeply unconventional.

A Glimpse of the Unexplained

While Burgess downplays the supernatural, a single eerie incident lingers. When moving into the bungalow Glen Webb now occupies, he captured a photo of a windowsill repair. In the photo behind me there was a boy in an old school costume standing behind me on stairs that weren’t there, he recalled. The moment, he said, was “spooky,” though he dismissed it as a one-time occurrence.

As he puts it, Where I live is really normal. I’ve been here pretty much since birth.