Monument to William Shrubsole, North Section
MONUMENT TO WILLIAM SHRUBSOLE, 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:
- 1396547
- Date first listed:
- 21-Feb-2011
- List Entry Name:
- Monument to William Shrubsole, North Section
- Statutory Address:
- MONUMENT TO WILLIAM SHRUBSOLE, NORTH SECTION, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1396547
- Date first listed:
- 21-Feb-2011
- List Entry Name:
- Monument to William Shrubsole, North Section
- Statutory Address 1:
- MONUMENT TO WILLIAM SHRUBSOLE, 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 WILLIAM SHRUBSOLE, 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 32642 82301
Details
635-1/0/10241 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to William Shrubsole, North s ection
GV II Headstone of William Shrubsole, 1806, relocated 1964-5
LOCATION: 532642.4, 182300.8
MATERIALS: Sandstone
DESCRIPTION: The monument is a simple upright slab with a shaped top. The inscription names Shrubsole as 'Composer of Miles's Lane' and is carved with the opening bars of the song represented on a musical stave. A secondary inscription records the burials of John and Mary Tolkien.
HISTORY: William Shrubsole (c.1760-1806) was born in Canterbury and educated as a chorister at the Cathedral Choir School. He was appointed organist at Bangor Cathedral, but his Nonconformist sympathies led to his dismissal in 1784; shortly afterward he moved to London to become organist at Spa Fields Chapel in Clerkenwell. He was also a noted music teacher and singer, and wrote the famous hymn tune 'Miles Lane'.
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; Shrubsole's tomb was one of those selected for retention.
SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902). A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915). JC Hadden, rev. Nilanjana Banerji, entry on Shrubsole in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com (retrieved on 9 June 2009).
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to William Shrubsole is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It commemorates a noted C18 musician and hymnodist. * It bears an unusual inscription including the opening bars' of Shrubsole's best-known hymn tune. * 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:
- 508582
- 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 05-Jun-2026 at 19:53:04.
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