Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, 38 City Road, EC1

Bunhill Fields is the picturesque cemetery in which Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) reveals to Senay (Audrey Tautou) that he’s married, in Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things.

The burial ground, originally much larger than the remnant left today, has been restored as a peaceful park after being severely bomb-damaged during WWII. Established in 1315, it was, unusually, not consecrated, which meant that it became the last resting place for nonconformists and liberal humanists. Packed with 120,000 occupants, it was finally closed to further burials in 1853.

Famous graves include those of John Bunyan (author of Pilgrim’s Progress), Daniel De-Foe (author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders) and mystic poet and painter William Blake. The most unusual monument, though, must be the huge sarcophagus of one Dame Mary Page, with an enthusiastically detailed inscription which gives just a little too much information: ‘In 67 months she was tapd [tapped] 66 times. Had taken away 240 gallons of water without ever repining at her case or ever fearing the operation.’

Dirty Pretty Things (2002, dir: Stephen Frears)