Mausoleum of Harvey Lewis, Brompton Cemetery

Brompton Cemetery, Old Brompton Road, London, SW10

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Overview

Mausoleum of Harvey Lewis, c.1854. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1403348
Date first listed:: 21-Dec-2011
List Entry Name:: Mausoleum of Harvey Lewis, Brompton Cemetery
Statutory Address:: Brompton Cemetery, Old Brompton Road, London, SW10

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1403348
Date first listed:: 21-Dec-2011
List Entry Name:: Mausoleum of Harvey Lewis, Brompton Cemetery
Statutory Address 1:: Brompton Cemetery, Old Brompton Road, London, SW10

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:: Brompton Cemetery, Old Brompton Road, London, SW10

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

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Kensington and Chelsea (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ2561977965

Summary

Mausoleum of Harvey Lewis, c.1854

Reasons for Designation

* Architectural: an imposing Portland stone mausoleum in a neo-classical style complete with railings and family crest; * Group value: with other listed tombs in the Grade I-registered Brompton Cemetery.

History

John Harvey Lewis (1814-1888) was born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the bar in Ireland in 1838 but relinquished practice in 1850, becoming High Sheriff of Co. Kildare in 1857. He was the Liberal Member of Parliament for Marylebone from 1861 to 1874, under Prime Ministers Palmerston, Disraeli and Gladstone. His first wife Emily Owen Lewis, whom he married in 1840, died in 1850 at the age of 36. Her body was placed in a vault in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin and later re-buried in the mausoleum at Brompton Cemetery in November 1854.

Brompton Cemetery was one of the 'magnificent seven' privately-run burial grounds established in the 1830s and 1840s to relieve pressure on London's overcrowded churchyards. It was laid out in 1839-1844 to designs by the architect Benjamin B Baud, who devised a classical landscape of axial drives and vistas with rond-points at the intersections marked by mausolea or ornamental planting, the latter devised by Isaac Finnemore with advice from J C Loudon. The main Ceremonial Way culminates in a dramatic architectural ensemble recalling Bernini's piazza in front of St Peter's in Rome, with flanking colonnades curving outwards to form a Great Circle, closed at its southern end in a domed Anglican chapel (the planned Catholic and Nonconformist chapels were omitted for financial reasons). The cemetery, never a commercial success, was compulsorily purchased by the General Board of Health in the early 1850s, and has remained in state ownership ever since.

Details

MATERIALS: Portland stone mausoleum with cast-iron door

Square neo-classical mausoleum. Moulded plinth. Iron door in south side has three deeply recessed panels, that in the centre bearing a shield with 'Harvey Lewis' in embossed letters; the top ventilation panel has decorative openwork scrolls. Slim panels to either side of the door are duplicated on the other three sides, flanking large central panels. There is a pediment to each of the four sides; in the tympanum above the door are the arms of Harvey Lewis, the escutcheon bearing a lion passant on a chevron between three spearheads. This is surmounted by an ostrich-feather crest, with the Welsh motto 'Bidd Lu Heb Lydd' ('Unity and Strength') below. Railings surround the monument, the posts having neo-classical panels and pediments.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991), pp.470-471
Sheppard, FHW, Survey of London: Volume 41: Brompton, (1983), pp.246-252
Stevens Curl, J, The Victorian Celebration of Death, (1972), pp.112-129
Websites
Debrett's Illustrated Heraldic & Biographical House of Commons & the Judicial Bench 1870, accessed from http:/www.archive.org/details/debrettshouseo1870londuoft

Legal

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