Monument to Henry Russell, Kensal Green Cemetery

Tomb of Henry Russell, Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, London, W10 4RA

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Overview

Stone funerary monument in the form of a chair, c.1900. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1405479
Date first listed:: 03-Apr-2012
List Entry Name:: Monument to Henry Russell, Kensal Green Cemetery
Statutory Address:: Tomb of Henry Russell, Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, London, W10 4RA

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1405479
Date first listed:: 03-Apr-2012
List Entry Name:: Monument to Henry Russell, Kensal Green Cemetery
Statutory Address 1:: Tomb of Henry Russell, Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, London, W10 4RA

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:: Tomb of Henry Russell, Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, London, W10 4RA

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

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Hammersmith and Fulham (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ2298082478

Summary

Stone funerary monument in the form of a chair, c.1900.

Reasons for Designation

The monument to Henry Russell is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: commemorates the life and work of a leading popular singer and songwriter of the mid C19. * Design interest: a highly unusual monument whose form reflects the subject of Russell's best-known song; * Group value: with other listed monuments in the Grade I registered Kensal Green Cemetery.

History

Henry Russell (c.1812-1900) was a leading popular singer, songwriter and entertainer. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Sheerness, Kent, he received a classical training at the Bologna conservatory (where he met Rossini, Donizetti and others) and afterwards worked as chorus master at the King’s Theatre in London before crossing the Atlantic to seek his fortune as an entertainer. His songs, which he performed to his own accompaniment at the piano, were a success with audiences across the United States, and played an important role in the development of the American popular song tradition. He returned to London in 1842, and continued to compose and perform until his retirement in 1857. He claimed to have written between 600 and 800 songs, of which the best known include ‘Woodman, Spare that Tree!’ (1837), ‘A Life on the Ocean Wave’ (1838) and – the inspiration for his monument – ‘The Old Arm Chair’ (1840).

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, 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

The monument takes the form of a stone arm-chair with leaded inscriptions. The inscription on the back-rest reads: ‘In sorrowing and affectionate memory of my dearly beloved husband Henry Russell whom God called to rest Dec 7 1900 aged 87. His songs like his acts encouraged the poor and inspired the rich. Beloved by all who knew him, he died as he lived in perfect peace. May we meet in heaven.’ Below is inscribed: ‘Also of his beloved wife Hannah who passed away March 15 1922 aged 77. Re-united.’ On the front panel are the closing words from Russell’s famous song: ‘I love it, I love it, and who shall dare / To chide me for loving this old arm chair.’

Sources

Books and journals
Curl, Stevens J, Kensal Green Cemetery: The Origins and Development of the General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, London, 1824-2001, (2001)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991)
Websites
Henry Russell (1812?-1900), accessed from http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/24312
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,

Legal

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