Mausoleum of Baron John Frederick Andrew Huth, Kensal Green Cemetery

Summary

Portland stone mausoleum by EM Lander the Elder, dated 1841.

Reasons for Designation

The Mausoleum of Baron John Frederick Andrew Huth is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Artistic interest: a large and elaborate mausoleum, executed to a high standard of craftsmanship;
* Group value: with other listed monuments within the Grade I registered Kensal Green Cemetery.

History

John Frederick Andrew Huth (1777-1864) was a merchant and merchant banker, nicknamed the 'Napoleon of the City' for his financial alacrity and personal presence. Born Johann Friederich Andreas Huth in Stade, Hanover, he was apprenticed to a Spanish merchant house at Hamburg, and afterwards worked for the company in Spain. Following the French invasion of 1809 Huth fled to London, where he established his own trading company, Frederick Huth & Co., supplying the British army in Spain and importing goods from Latin America to Europe. He and his family became naturalised British subjects in 1819. From 1829 Huth was financial adviser to Queen Maria Christina of Spain and financial agent for the Spanish government. His firm also played an important role in financing trade with North America, and by the time of his retirement in 1850 had become one of the largest merchant banking houses in London.

The Cemetery of All Souls at Kensal Green was the earliest of the large privately-run cemeteries established on the fringes of London to relieve pressure on overcrowded urban churchyards. Its founder George Frederick Carden intended it as an English counterpart to the great Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, which he had visited in 1821. In 1830, with the financial backing of the banker Sir John Dean Paul, Carden established the General Cemetery Company, and two years later an Act of Parliament was obtained to develop a 55-acre site at Kensal Green, then among open fields to the west of the metropolis. An architectural competition was held, but the winning entry – a Gothic scheme by HE Kendall – fell foul of Sir John's classicising tastes, and the surveyor John Griffith of Finsbury was eventually employed both to lay out the grounds and to design the Greek Revival chapels, entrance arch and catacombs, built between 1834 and 1837. A sequence of royal burials, beginning in 1843 with that of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, ensured the cemetery’s popularity. It is still administered by the General Cemetery Company, assisted since 1989 by the Friends of Kensal Green.

Details

A very large Portland stone mausoleum designed by Edward Manuel Lander the Elder. Standing on a tall base with torus moulding, each face has a central panel with an inscription or armorial achievement flanked by urns in relief. The frieze has Biblical inscriptions in Latin on each side (Job 1:21: 'Dominus dedit Dominus abstulit / sit nomen Domini benedictum' - 'the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away / blessed be the name of the Lord'); the roof is a stepped pyramid with pierced ventilation openings. The mausoleum is said to have cost £1,500 and has a capacity for 48 coffins within.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

487814

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991)
Roscoe, I, Hardy, E, Sullivan, M G, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, ((2009))
Roscoe, I, Hardy, E, Sullivan, M G, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, ((2009))
Curl, Stevens J, Kensal Green Cemetery: The Origins and Development of the General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, London, 1824-2001, (2001)

Other
The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, Paths of Glory or 'A Select Alphabetical and Biographical List, illustrated with Line Drawings of their Monuments, of Persons of Note Commemorated at The Cemetery of All Souls at Kensal Green', 1997,

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