Summary
Portland stone funerary monument, c.1841.
Reasons for Designation
The tomb of James Edward Andrews is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Artistic interest: a striking and idiosyncratic neoclassical monument;
* Historic interest: early date within the cemetery;
* Group value: with other listed monuments within the Grade I registered Kensal Green Cemetery.
History
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
A large neoclassical monument in the form of a tall battered pedestal on a moulded base, each face having a blank recessed and moulded panel. The pedestal is surmounted by a small square arca (or chest), decorated with anthemions and standing on sprightly lion's-paw feet; at each corner are acroteria, while each side is embellished with a blank shield.
Sources
Books and journals Other
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
End of official list entry
