Monument to Samuel Favell, North Section
MONUMENT TO SAMUEL FAVELL, NORTH SECTION, 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:
- 1396545
- Date first listed:
- 21-Feb-2011
- List Entry Name:
- Monument to Samuel Favell, North Section
- Statutory Address:
- MONUMENT TO SAMUEL FAVELL, NORTH SECTION, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1396545
- Date first listed:
- 21-Feb-2011
- List Entry Name:
- Monument to Samuel Favell, North Section
- Statutory Address 1:
- MONUMENT TO SAMUEL FAVELL, NORTH SECTION, 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 SAMUEL FAVELL, NORTH SECTION, 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 32649 82285
Details
635-1/0/10239 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Samuel Favell, North section
GV II Coped stone monument to Samuel Favell, late C19
LOCATION: 532649.1, 182284.9
MATERIALS: Granite
DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a rectangular coped stone in red granite on a low stone plinth. The main inscription names Samuel Favell as being 'of Flemish descent, a member of the Court of Common Council 1810-1829, founder of Mill Hill School 1807, a promoter of Sunday schools, Catholic emancipation, the University of London, Guildhall Library and the New London Bridge He strongly opposed slavery and the cruelties of the then-existing criminal code.' The other face is inscribed with the names of Obadiah Arrowsmith (d.1805), Catherine Arrowsmith (d.1810) and John David David (d.1825).
HISTORY: Samuel Favell (1760-1830) was a London merchant, politician and philanthropist. As a member of the Common Council of the City of London he was a leading champion of political and social reform: it was he who tabled the historic motion that eventually led to Parliament's repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts - C17 legislation excluding non-Anglicans from public office - in 1828. Along with the Yorkshire clergyman and theologian John Pye Smith he was a co-founder of Mill Hill School, London's principal Nonconformist boarding school.
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. The latter scheme involved clearing the tombs in the cemetery's northern enclosure; Barber's tomb was one of those selected for retention and relocation.
SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902). A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915). 'Mill Hill School', in VCH Middlesex, vol.1, pp.307-8, www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?comid=22138 (retrieved on 9 June 2009).
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to Samuel Favell is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It commemorates one of the foremost Dissenting laymen of early-C19 London, a key figure in the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts and other reform movements. * 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 north section.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 508580
- 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
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 22-Jun-2026 at 05:53:00.
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