Tomb of Frederick R Leyland, Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery, Old Brompton Road, London, SW10

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Overview

Tomb chest of Frederick Richards Leyland, c.1892, by Edward Burne-Jones. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1225750
Date first listed:: 07-Nov-1984
List Entry Name:: Tomb of Frederick R Leyland, Brompton Cemetery
Statutory Address:: Brompton Cemetery, Old Brompton Road, London, SW10

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Date:: 2001-08-13
Reference:: IOE01/05122/12
Rights:: © Peter Karry. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1225750
Date first listed:: 07-Nov-1984
Date of most recent amendment:: 21-Dec-2011
List Entry Name:: Tomb of Frederick R Leyland, Brompton Cemetery
Statutory Address 1:: Brompton Cemetery, Old Brompton Road, London, SW10

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Brompton Cemetery, Old Brompton Road, London, SW10

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Kensington and Chelsea (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ2565377846

Summary

Tomb chest of Frederick Richards Leyland, c.1892, by Edward Burne-Jones.

Reasons for Designation

* Architectural interest: a unique and beautiful tomb designed by one of the foremost artists of the Victorian era, Edward Burne-Jones, and his only work of funerary art * Historic interest: commemorating a prominent patron of the arts, Frederick Richards Leyland, who commissioned work from Dante Gabriel Rosetti and James McNeill Whistler * Group value: with other listed tombs nearby, in the Grade I-registered Brompton Cemetery.

History

Frederick Richards Leyland was a ship owner and art patron, born the son of a bookkeeper in Liverpool in 1831. He made his fortune running the Bibby Line of steamships, where he started working as an apprentice in 1844. In 1872 Leyland bought out his employers, renaming the company the Leyland Line, and later began transatlantic services. Leyland was a great patron of the arts, leasing and restoring Speke Hall in Liverpool, an important half-timbered Tudor house, from 1867 and, from 1877, a Robert Adam-designed house Woolton Hall. From 1876 he remodelled his London home, at 49 Prince's Gate, to further his dream of 'living the life of an old Venetian merchant in modern London'. Leyland collected Italian Renaissance paintings and also became the leading patron of the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists, including Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Edward Burne-Jones and James McNeill Whistler; the latter decorated the entrance hall and dining room of 49 Prince's Gate. This is the only tomb designed by Edward Burne-Jones, who was principally a painter and designer of stained glass.

Brompton Cemetery was one of the 'magnificent seven' privately-run burial grounds established in the 1830s and 1840s to relieve pressure on London's overcrowded churchyards. It was laid out in 1839-1844 to designs by the architect Benjamin B Baud, who devised a classical landscape of axial drives and vistas with rond-points at the intersections marked by mausolea or ornamental planting, the latter devised by Isaac Finnemore with advice from J C Loudon. The main Ceremonial Way culminates in a dramatic architectural ensemble recalling Bernini's piazza in front of St Peter's in Rome, with flanking colonnades curving outwards to form a Great Circle, closed at its southern end in a domed Anglican chapel (the planned Catholic and Nonconformist chapels were omitted for financial reasons). The cemetery, never a commercial success, was compulsorily purchased by the General Board of Health in the early 1850s, and has remained in state ownership ever since.

Details

A tall, slender Portland stone chest on short Romanesque piers with cushion capitals with a copper roof, worked to suggest fish scales. All four sides are decorated with low-relief floral scrolls in copper. Raised lettering in a band on one of the long sides reads: 'Here lies Frederick Richards Leyland sometime of Woolton Hall Liverpool / and XLIX Princes Gate Born September XXX MDCCCXXXI Died January IV MDCCCCII'; along the base of the tomb is bronze lettering commemorating Leyland's wife, who died in 1910.

The tomb is set on a stone plinth and bound by fine wrought iron railings with lilyhead finials to the corners.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 422215
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991), pp. 470-471
Sheppard, FHW, Survey of London: Volume 41: Brompton, (1983), pp.247-252
Stevens Curl, J, The Victorian Celebration of Death, (1972), pp.112-129
Websites
Leyland, Frederick Richards (1831-1892), accessed from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39341
Other
English Heritage, Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England: Part 17, Greater London, (2003)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.