Monument to Adelina Lane, Kensal Green Cemetery

Summary

Portland stone chest tomb, 1834, by J Browne of London.

Reasons for Designation

The tomb of Adelina Lane is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Artistic interest: a handsome chest tomb, one of a group of early monuments within the cemetery, by a noted monumental sculptor;
* Group value: with other listed monuments within the Grade I registered Kensal Green Cemetery.

History

Adelina Lane was buried at Kensal Green in 1834, making her tomb one of the earliest in the cemetery. The monument is signed by J Browne of London; although there is some uncertainty concerning the identity of the sculptor or sculptors known as J Brown(e) (Roscoe, 2009), other monuments attributed to Joseph Browne (flourished 1814-45) at Kensal Green Cemetery include those of Christopher Tilson Chowne and Sarah Elizabeth Smith.

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 heavy rusticated pilasters at the angles. Oversailing coped top rising to a central moulded ridge with plain, blocky pedimented ends flanked by acroteria; a similar transverse ridge halfway down ends in similar pediments supported on heavy stepped corbels. Chamfered base and plain slab beneath. Side panel inscribed: 'Sacred / to the Memory of / Adelina Lane / beloved wife of John Lane Esqre R.N. / of Keppel Street Russell Square / died 17th September 1834 aged 53 years'. Signed J Browne of London.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991)
Roscoe, I, Hardy, E, Sullivan, M G, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660-1851, ((2009))
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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