Tower Hamlets: Historic Cemetery Arboretum Open 24 Hours

Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park is a free woodland cemetery in Bow, east London, and its Victorian main gates stand on Southern Grove, E3 4PX. It opened in 1841 as the last of the Magnificent Seven, and today the park is accessible 24 hours a day, every day, through its pedestrian side gates. The Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park call it London's most central woodland, and on a misty November morning it is easy to see why.

The site opened as the City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery, the final private cemetery in the ring that later writers called the Magnificent Seven. It was the second smallest of the seven by area, but it took the most bodies: the Friends estimate around 350,000 burials. The first, on the day of consecration, was a 61-year-old named Walter Gray, and the Friends describe the site as a people's cemetery for the East End.

That makes this a very different place from Highgate or Kensal Green. Grand mausolea are rare; instead the ground is packed with modest headstones, many of them for common graves, crowded so closely that they lean into one another under the trees. Read the inscriptions as you walk and you get a slow, personal portrait of the Victorian East End, family by family, buried close to the streets they knew.

As burials stopped and the land was left alone, trees seeded themselves between the graves, and the cemetery turned into dense woodland. Today it is one of only two Local Nature Reserves in Tower Hamlets and a Metropolitan Site of Importance for Nature Conservation. The Friends, an independent charity working here since 1990, manage it for both heritage and wildlife, and the balance between the two is visible on every path.

In late autumn the canopy thins and the headstones stand out against leaf litter, ivy and bramble. Some areas are left deliberately wild, and dogs may need to be on a lead in certain zones during nesting season or around new planting. Well-behaved dogs are otherwise welcome, but clean-up must be immediate; failing to clean up can lead to prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000.

The Friends run more than 170 events a year, booked through their Ticket Tailor page, and November's calendar is a good sample. A Radical History Walk runs on Saturday 7 November from 11am to 1pm. The Wild Food and Foraging Walk on Saturday 21 November runs from 1pm to 4pm, meeting at the Cemetery Park Lodge, and it is the best way to learn what the woodland actually grows.

The Remembrance Sunday Service is on 8 November from 10.30am, free to attend with a donation if you can. Nature volunteering runs on the first Sunday of each month from 11am to 3pm, also free, and it is how many locals first get to know the place. Indoors, the Soanes Centre hosts the First Thursdays film screenings, with the next on Thursday 5 November from 6.30pm, and a monthly craft drop-in.

Families get their own programme. The Bow Beasties family wildlife club runs on several dates through the year with free tickets and a suggested donation, and a New Parents Walk is set for Monday 14 December from noon to 1.30pm, meeting at the Lodge. Seasonal workshops fill the run-up to Christmas, including wreath making with greenery and an embroidery workshop inspired by nature on Saturday 28 November.

On a weekday morning you will share the paths with dog walkers from Bow and Mile End, students cutting through, parents with buggies and volunteers in work gloves heading for the Lodge. Friends' staff are on site Monday to Friday from 9am to 4.30pm. The etiquette is simple: keep to the paths, leave fallen wood where it lies for the insects, and treat the graves with respect, as families still visit some of them.

Skip this park if you want famous names and monuments to photograph; it has few of either, and the headstones are mostly plain. Come for the woodland and the social history. Be aware that there are no public toilets in the park; during Friends' events, toilets are normally available in the Soanes Centre or the Lodge. Plan any long visit around that, especially with children.

The main Southern Grove entrance is locked overnight and opens at dawn, while the Hamlets Way and Cantrell Road gates stay open around the clock for walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users. On a dark winter evening, though, the woodland paths are unlit, so come in daylight. If you want open space instead of trees, Mile End Park is a short walk west and runs alongside the Regent's Canal.

Mile End station, on the Central, District and Hammersmith and City lines, is the most useful approach, along with Bow Road station on the District and Hammersmith and City lines and Bow Church on the DLR. For events at the Lodge and the Soanes Centre, use the north-eastern entrance off Southern Grove, which is closest to both and gives step-free access via a ramp at the Soanes Centre.

The park sits just south of Mile End Road, so it pairs well with a canal walk. Head west through Mile End Park to the Regent's Canal, or south towards Limehouse along the towpath. Roman Road, a short walk north, with its long-running street market, is the place to find lunch and a coffee after a morning among the trees.

Main entrance: Southern Grove, London E3 4PX, open from dawn and locked overnight. Side gates on Hamlets Way and Cantrell Road are open 24 hours. Entry is free. Email: contact@fothcp.org. Friends' staff are on site Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm. There are no public toilets; baby changing is available in the Lodge during events, and benches with backrests are placed at regular intervals.

Book walks and workshops through the Friends' Ticket Tailor page, where many events are free with a suggested donation. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to plan a Saturday that starts with the foraging walk at the Lodge, continues through Mile End Park and ends with lunch around Roman Road.