Monument to Thomas Bradbury, West Enclosure
MONUMENT TO THOMAS BRADBURY, WEST ENCLOSURE, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1396543
- Date first listed:
- 21-Feb-2011
- List Entry Name:
- Monument to Thomas Bradbury, West Enclosure
- Statutory Address:
- MONUMENT TO THOMAS BRADBURY, WEST ENCLOSURE, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1396543
- Date first listed:
- 21-Feb-2011
- List Entry Name:
- Monument to Thomas Bradbury, West Enclosure
- Statutory Address 1:
- MONUMENT TO THOMAS BRADBURY, WEST 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.
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.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- MONUMENT TO THOMAS BRADBURY, WEST 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 32630 82240
Details
635-1/0/10237 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Thomas Bradbury, West encl osure
GV II Chest tomb of Thomas Bradbury, 1759
LOCATION: 532629.5, 182239.9
MATERIALS: Portland stone with sandstone plinth.
DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a stone chest with a moulded lid and base, resting upon a low sandstone plinth. It has fluted and gadrooned corner balusters and fielded inscription panels. The principal inscription extols Bradbury's virtues and records the details of his career, ending with an exhortation to the reader: 'Remember, also, that as surely as night succeeds the longest day, so surely will death conclude the longest life. Work, therefore, while it is day.' An inscription on one of the end panels records the burial of his wife Mary.
HISTORY: Thomas Bradbury (c.1676-1759) was an Independent minister and a prominent figure in the religious controversies of the early C18. Born near Wakefield in Yorkshire, he was educated at Leeds free school and Timothy Jollie's academy at Attercliffe, before becoming minister at Beverley in 1697. In 1703 he moved to London, and in 1707 became minister at the meeting house in Fetter Lane. He became noted for his controversial and highly political sermons, in support of religious liberty and the Hanoverian succession; in 1714 he claimed to be the first person to proclaim the accession of King George I after news of Queen Anne's death was secretly conveyed to him whilst preaching. Within the Dissenting community too he was known as a controversialist, especially for his pugnacious defence of orthodox views of the Trinity during and after the so-called 'Salters' Hall dispute' of 1719. His publications, mainly collections of sermons and lectures, include The Power of Christ (1724), The Mystery of Godliness (1726) and A Confession of Faith (1729).
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). John Handby, entry on Bradbury in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com (retrieved on 9 June 2009).
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to Thomas Bradbury is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a handsome and well-preserved mid-C18 chest tomb. * It commemorates a leading Independent clergyman and religious controversialist. * 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 west enclosure.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 508578
- 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.
Map
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