In front of a granite plinth bearing a bust of Karl Marx, with his bushy beard and thick moustache, lie four flowers, carefully laid in remembrance of the father of communism.
'It was Chinese people who brought the flowers,' said the young Polish man who collects the GBP2 (HK$19) fee for entry into Highgate Cemetery. 'More Chinese come here to visit Marx than people from any other nation. We have diplomats and visiting dignitaries in swish cars and groups of tourists who grumble about paying money to see the dead.
'Next come the Russians and then the Germans. But no Poles and few from eastern Europe.'
What an irony of history that the creator of the most important political movement of the 20th century is honoured more by people from the other side of the world than by those from his own continent.
Marx shares Highgate Cemetery, an area of 150,000 square metres and 50,000 tombs on a hill in north London, with friends and foes - communists and socialists from around the world and emigres from Russia, Poland and other countries who couldn't return home because the communists had taken power.
For the dead, it's one of the most desirable addresses in London. It costs GBP400 (HK$5,690) to scatter ashes, tombstones start at GBP6,000 and a mausoleum costs GBP45,000.