Campbell Family Mausoleum

Summary

Mausoleum, 1904 by CHB Quennell.

Reasons for Designation

The Campbell Family Mausoleum, erected in 1904 to the designs of CHB Quennell, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as a high-quality example of an Edwardian mausoleum in a striking neo-Byzantine style;
* Architect: as an early work of CHB Quennell, famous as an architect, writer and illustrator of books on the history of architecture and design, with a number of listed buildings to his name;
* Historic interest: for the light it sheds on the part played by JD Campbell and other British entrepreneurs in the C19 economic development of South America;
* Interior: for its flamboyant and richly decorated interior;
* Materials and craftsmanship: for the high-quality of craftsmanship and materials, particularly the stained glass windows;
* Group value: the structure groups strongly with other listed mausoleums in St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery.

History

The mausoleum to the family of JD Campbell was erected in 1904 to the designs of the architect CHB Quennell. John Davies Campbell (1831-1878) was born in Manchester but emigrated to Peru in the early 1850s where he was engaged in the exploitation of nitrates in the form of guano and saltpetre. His company, Campbell and Outram, formed in partnership with another British expatriate, Joseph Outram (d 1878) was one of a number of British owned companies which dominated the lucrative trade in nitrates from the Atacama Desert between Peru and Chile. A merchant and banker, Campbell became the mayor of the nitrate port of Pisagua. He appears to have married a Peruvian, Delmira Vargas (1836-1906) who, after her husband’s death, moved to England and is interred in the mausoleum in St Mary’s Cemetery, along with a number of their children. JD Campbell is buried in a lavish stone tomb crowned with his bust in the town of Tacna, Peru.

Charles Henry Bourne Quennell (1872-1935) worked in the offices of Newman and Newman and of JD Sedding and Henry Wilson. He began his architectural practice in 1896 as the designer of middle class housing, primarily in Hampstead, Bickley Park and Northwood. His buildings used an individual blend of Arts and Crafts and Queen Anne styles which developed into a dignified but austere neo-Georgian style. The Campbell Mausoleum's neo-Byzantine style and palate of materials has probably inspired by the Early Christian Byzantine design for Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral by J F Bentley, begun in 1895 and completed in 1903. It is known that Westminster Cathedral was the inspiration for Quennell's neo-Gothic Church of St John, Upper Edmonton (1905-6).

The majority of his commissions were suburban houses but also included a number of churches around London, two schools and some country houses including Grade A listed Aultmore, Nethybridge, Scotland. He also designed gardens, interiors and furniture. Hermann Muthesius in 'The English House' (1904) described him as 'the master of pen-and-ink drawing', an architect 'for the most part concerned with interior decoration and furniture design'. Like Baillie Scott he designed standardised Arts and Crafts furniture (particularly inglenooks and fireplaces) for JP White of Bedford.

He was a member of the Junior Art Workers Guild where he met his future wife Marjorie Courtney, an artist and designer, whom he married in 1904. During the First World War the Quennells started the research for a book on the history of the English to be seen from the perspective of ordinary people, their lives and surroundings, rather than the usual history of political events. The first volume entitled, 'A History of Everyday Things in England 1066-1499' was published in 1918. By the time CHB Quennell died in 1935 there were 11 volumes and these are credited with a major influence on the change of direction in history teaching in the mid-C20. Currently (2017) 25 buildings by CHB Quennell are statutorily listed in England, mostly houses.

Details

Mausoleum, 1904 by CHB Quennell.

MATERIALS: red brick with Portland stone banding and dressings and cement screed covered dome and apse. Copper doors and stained glass windows.

PLAN: apsidal plan set on a rectangular Portland stone plinth.

EXTERIOR: neo-Byzantine style with polychromatic banding. Above a stone cornice, with four water spouts with stylised animal heads, is a cement dome with thermal windows breaking into it on three sides. The E (entrance) elevation has an openwork bronze door with glazed panels in a stone surround with bead and spindle mouldings. The door bears a plate with the legend ‘VAULT OF THE LATE/ J D CAMPBELLS FAMILY'. Above the door is a panel with a cornice over. The panel bears a Chi-Rho monogram inside a laurel wreath, carved in relief. Either side of the door are raised panels with a dentil border bearing the names and dates of the deceased.

INTERIOR: the inside of the ceiling is covered with gold mosaic, that to the dome having a blue mosaic border. The walls are lined with Ashburton and Torquay marble; grey green with a pink marble cornice. At the time of the inspection (2016) many of the panels were coming away from their supports. The apse has blind arcading with an altar in the central, round-headed, niche. The stained glass in the thermal windows has elaborate foliate designs with the images of Christ Risen (E window), the Pelican-in-her-Piety (S window) and the Lamb of God (N window).

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

201812

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gray, A S, Edwardian Architecture A Biographical Dictionary, (1985), 299
McKellar, E, CHB Quennell (1872-1935): Architecture, History and the Quest for the Modern in Architectural History , Vol. 50, (2007), 211-246

Other
Sally Strachey Historic Conservation, Condition and Recommendation Report - Campbell Family Vault, St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery (March 2015)

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