Monument to John Campbell, Kensal Green Cemetery

Summary

Portland stone chest tomb, c.1840.

Reasons for Designation

The tomb of John Campbell (d.1840) is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural and artistic interest: a lavish chest tomb, enriched with robust, good quality carving;
* Historic interest: an early monument within the cemetery, with heraldic decoration affirming the deceased’s membership of the Scottish nobility;
* Group value: with nearby listed monuments within the Grade I registered Kensal Green Cemetery.

History

Early monument within the cemetery to John Campbell who died in 1840 aged 62. Campbell was associated with the Campbell family, Earls of Breadalbane and Holland, who acquired the title Marquess of Breadalbane in 1831.

The Cemetery of All Souls at Kensal Green was the earliest of the large privately-run cemeteries established on the fringes of London to relieve pressure on overcrowded urban churchyards. Its founder George Frederick Carden intended it as an English counterpart to the great Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, which he had visited in 1821. In 1830, with the financial backing of the banker Sir John Dean Paul, Carden established the General Cemetery Company, and two years later an Act of Parliament was obtained to develop a 55-acre site at Kensal Green, then among open fields to the west of the metropolis. An architectural competition was held, but the winning entry – a Gothic scheme by HE Kendall – fell foul of Sir John's classicising tastes, and the surveyor John Griffith of Finsbury was eventually employed both to lay out the grounds and to design the Greek Revival chapels, entrance arch and catacombs, which were built between 1834 and 1837. A sequence of royal burials, beginning in 1843 with that of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, ensured the cemetery’s popularity. It is still administered by the General Cemetery Company, assisted since 1989 by the Friends of Kensal Green.

Details

Chest tomb with splayed sides and a canted lid with pedimented ends, the latter enriched at the angles with robust, flowing swags of fruit and foliage. The southern face of the chest bears a carved escutcheon set within a wreath of thistles. The right hand quarters of the shield are thought to represent the Campbells of Breadalbane; above is the Breadalbane boar’s head and below is the family motto ‘Follow Me’.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991)
Curl, Stevens J, Kensal Green Cemetery: The Origins and Development of the General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, London, 1824-2001, (2001)

Other
The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, Paths of Glory or 'A Select Alphabetical and Biographical List, illustrated with Line Drawings of their Monuments, of Persons of Note Commemorated at The Cemetery of All Souls at Kensal Green', 1997,

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