‘I brought up my family in a London graveyard’

“For me where I live is really normal, I’ve been here pretty much since birth,” says 18-year-old Poppy, who is on her way to a dance class.

“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.”

Colin has worked hard to keep family life as normal as possible: the lodge comes with a large garden that the children could play in – bike riding and running around outside his house and garden were done elsewhere.

“People say ‘you should ride a quad bike and ride it up these paths’ but I would never do it, out of respect,” he says.

He never walks his dog in the cemetery either.

With up to four funerals a day taking place right outside their door, it’s been impossible to keep death away from family life.

“Poppy is going on to study health and social care,” explains Colin. “She made a big thing on her application about growing up in a cemetery, witnessing death and grief and bereavement on a daily basis.”