Monument to George Peckett

Highgate (West) Cemetery, Swain's Lane, Camden, Greater London, N6 6PJ

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Obelisk monument in sandstone and granite with copper cladding, by MJ Dayes (architect) WR Shrivall (metalworker) and JW Seale (mason); plot purchased 1866. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1403426
Date first listed:: 22-Dec-2011
List Entry Name:: Monument to George Peckett
Statutory Address:: Highgate (West) Cemetery, Swain's Lane, Camden, Greater London, N6 6PJ

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1403426
Date first listed:: 22-Dec-2011
List Entry Name:: Monument to George Peckett
Location Description:: At northern tip of Oval Path
Statutory Address 1:: Highgate (West) Cemetery, Swain's Lane, Camden, Greater London, N6 6PJ

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:: Highgate (West) Cemetery, Swain's Lane, Camden, Greater London, N6 6PJ

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

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Camden (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ2840887016

Summary

Obelisk monument in sandstone and granite with copper cladding, by MJ Dayes (architect) WR Shrivall (metalworker) and JW Seale (mason); plot purchased 1866.

Reasons for Designation

The monument to George Peckett is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Design interest: a large, impressive and well-detailed Gothic monument in an unusual material; * Setting: it is a prominent landmark within the Grade I registered Highgate Cemetery and has group value with other listed tombs and structures nearby.

History

Highgate Cemetery was the third of London's 'magnificent seven' burial grounds, a ring of suburban cemeteries established in the 1830s and 1840s to relieve pressure on overcrowded urban churchyards. It was the creation of the London Cemetery Company, a joint-stock company founded by the architect and engineer Stephen Geary and formally instituted by Act of Parliament in 1836. A seventeen-acre site on Highgate Hill was laid out as a picturesque garden cemetery with a network of serpentine drives, culminating in a monumental catacomb complex at the top of the hill. Geary himself supplied the initial plans, with assistance from the architect JB Bunning and from the landscape gardener David Ramsay. The cemetery, opened in 1839 and extended to the east of Swain's Lane in 1854, enjoyed great popularity and prestige during the second half of the C19 (famous occupants include George Eliot, Christina Rossetti and Karl Marx), but lack of money and maintenance led to a severe decline during the C20. Since 1975 it has been run on a charitable basis by the present Friends group.

Details

The monument is a tall octagonal obelisk or pinnacle, about five metres in height, somewhat resembling an Eleanor cross. The heavily-moulded plinth is of stone - the base and coping of sandstone, with granite between - and bears the names of the architect, metalworker and mason. The lowest stage of the copper-clad superstructure has a pattern of stamped quatrefoils, with a coat of arms in relief on each cardinal face. The uppermost stage is a series of cusped Gothic canopies, surmounted by a spire which has lost parts of its copper decoration.

Sources

Books and journals
Stevens Curl, J, Death and Architecture, (2002), pp.242-7
Other
Cemetery Order Books, held by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery.
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Legal

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