Pottenger Family Monument, South Enclosure

POTTENGER FAMILY MONUMENT, SOUTH ENCLOSURE, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1396504
Date first listed:
21-Feb-2011
List Entry Name:
Pottenger Family Monument, South Enclosure
Statutory Address:
POTTENGER FAMILY MONUMENT, SOUTH ENCLOSURE, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1396504
Date first listed:
21-Feb-2011
List Entry Name:
Pottenger Family Monument, South Enclosure
Statutory Address 1:
POTTENGER FAMILY MONUMENT, SOUTH ENCLOSURE, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

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

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

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

Location

Statutory Address:
POTTENGER FAMILY MONUMENT, SOUTH ENCLOSURE, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND

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

County:
Greater London Authority
District:
Islington (London Borough)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
TQ 32641 82205

Reasons for Designation

DCMS agree- list at Grade II.

Details

635-1/0/10254 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Pottenger family monument, South enclo sure

GV II Chest tomb of the Pottenger family, 1761

LOCATION: 532641.4, 182204.9

MATERIALS: Portland stone and brick

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a stone chest with a coped lid and moulded base, sunk within a rectangular brick-walled well about three feet in depth. (This is said to represent the original ground level within the cemetery.) The sides of the chest have incised panels bearing the names of various members of the Pottenger family. The two end panels read, respectively, 'RICHARD POTTENGER'S Vault 1761' and 'The Within are Gone to Rest'.

HISTORY: Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Thanks to its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, it became London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964-5.

SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902). A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Pottenger family vault is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a well-preserved C18 chest tomb with clearly legible inscriptions * Its unique sunken position vividly evokes the long history of burials on the site. * It is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the south enclosure.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
508621
Legacy System:
LBS

Legal

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

Ordnance survey map of Pottenger Family Monument, South Enclosure

Map

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End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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