Coleridge is now buried in the aisle of St. Michael's Parish Church in Highgate, London. He was originally buried at the Old Highgate Chapel, next to the main entrance of Highgate School. Coleridge could see the red door of the then new church from his last residence across the green, where he lived with a doctor he had hoped might cure him (in a house owned until 2022 by Kate Moss).
When it was discovered Coleridge's vault had become derelict, the coffins – Coleridge's and those of his wife Sarah, daughter Sara Coleridge, son-in-law Henry Nelson Coleridge, and grandson Herbert Coleridge, were moved to St. Michael's Highgate after an international fundraising appeal in 1961.[48] [4] [49]
Drew Clode, a member of St. Michael's stewardship committee states, "They put the coffins in a convenient space which was dry and secure, and quite suitable, bricked them up and forgot about them." A recent excavation revealed the coffins were not in the location most believed, the far corner of the crypt, but actually below a memorial slab in the nave inscribed with: "Beneath this stone lies the body of Samuel Taylor Coleridge".[4]
St. Michael's plans to restore the crypt and allow public access. Says vicar Kunle Ayodeji of the plans: "...we hope that the whole crypt can be cleared as a space for meetings and other uses, which would also allow access to Coleridge's cellar."[4]
