GROUP OF NINE CHEST TOMBS INCLUDING TOMB OF JOHN GUYSE, SOUTH ENCLOSURE

GROUP OF NINE CHEST TOMBS INCLUDING TOMB OF JOHN GUYSE, SOUTH 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:: 1396555
Date first listed:: 21-Feb-2011
List Entry Name:: GROUP OF NINE CHEST TOMBS INCLUDING TOMB OF JOHN GUYSE, SOUTH ENCLOSURE
Statutory Address:: GROUP OF NINE CHEST TOMBS INCLUDING TOMB OF JOHN GUYSE, SOUTH ENCLOSURE, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND

User submitted image — Uploaded by Helen C-F This photo may not represent the current condition of the site. Almost 350,000 images and stories have been added to the Missing Pieces Project so far. Share your story.
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1396555
Date first listed:: 21-Feb-2011
List Entry Name:: GROUP OF NINE CHEST TOMBS INCLUDING TOMB OF JOHN GUYSE, SOUTH ENCLOSURE
Statutory Address 1:: GROUP OF NINE CHEST TOMBS INCLUDING TOMB OF JOHN GUYSE, SOUTH ENCLOSURE, BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND

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

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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:: GROUP OF NINE CHEST TOMBS INCLUDING TOMB OF JOHN GUYSE, 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:: TQ3277782232

Reasons for Designation

The nine chest tombs are recommended for listing at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * They form a coherent group of late-C18 and early-C19 chest tombs in a prominent site at the eastern entrance to the cemetery. * One of the tombs commemorates John Guyse, a prominent Independent minister of the mid-C18. * They are located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), within which they form a prominent landmark.

Details

635-1/0/10270 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Group of nine chest tombs including to mb of John Guyse, South enclosure

GV II Group of nine chest tombs including tomb of John Guyse, late C18 and early C19

LOCATION: 532782.4, 182228.9 (start); 532776, 182243.9 (end)

MATERIALS: Portland stone with Pennant stone, sandstone and brick

DESCRIPTION: Nine chest tombs form a long row alongside the eastern boundary of the site, between the central pathway and the wall of the Honourable Artillery Company Ground. From north to south they are as follows: #1: Stone chest with brick plinth and corner pilasters; inscription identifies it as the family vault of William Pyne (d.1804). #2: Stone chest on raised plinth with fielded side and end panels; illegible. #3: Stone chest with fielded side panels, moulded Pennant stone lid and small upright footstone; illegible, but known to be the burial place of the Independent minister John Guyse. #4: Stone chest with sandstone plinth and fielded side panels; inscriptions commemorate Daniel Renney, 'late of the parish of St Leonard's, Shoreditch', and various members of the Bass family including William Francis (d.1795). #5: Stone chest with fielded side and end panels; illegible. #6: Stone chest with corner balusters and moulded Pennant stone lid; illegible. #7: Stone chest with fielded side and end panels; illegible. #8: Stone chest on raised plinth with fielded side and end panels; illegible. #9: Stone chest on raised plinth with fluted corner pilasters and high coped top; inscription commemorates William Hale (d.1808) and various members of his family.

HISTORY: John Guyse (c.1677-1761) was baptised in St Albans and educated at Dissenting academies at Pinner and Saffron Walden. He began to preach at the age of 19, eventually becoming assistant minister at a chapel in Hertford before moving to London in 1727 to preside over a newly-formed congregation at New Broad Street. A conservative Calvinist, he published pamphlets attacking Arianism as well as a number of sermons and biblical commentaries.

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). Edwin Cannan, rev. Stephen C. Orchard, entry on Guyse in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com (retrieved on 9 June 2009).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The nine chest tombs are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * They form a coherent group of late-C18 and early-C19 chest tombs in a prominent site at the eastern entrance to the cemetery. * One of the tombs commemorates John Guyse, a prominent Independent minister of the mid-C18. * They are located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), within which they form a prominent landmark.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 508639
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.