Tomb Of John Flaxman And Family In St Pancras Old Church Gardens

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 25/10/2016

TQ2983NE 798-1/78/1272

CAMDEN PANCRAS ROAD Tomb of John Flaxman and family in St Pancras Old Church Gardens

(Formerly listed as Tomb of Thomas Flaxman and family in St Pancras Old Church Gardens)

GV II Two slabs above vaults. c1840. Portland stone. Raised kerb with cast-iron railings, having enriched brackets to standards, surrounds stone vaults with battered stone slabs covering entrances. The inscription is weathered beyond legibility, but stated ’JOHN FLAXMAN RA, PS, WHOSE MORTAL LIFE WAS A CONSTANT PREPARATION FOR A BLESSED IMMORTALITY: HIS ANGELIC SPIRIT RETURNED TO THE DIVINE GIVER ON THE 7TH OF DECEMBER 1826 IN THE SEVENTY-SECOND YEAR OF HIS AGE’.

HISTORICAL NOTE: John Flaxman, 1755-1826, was a renowned sculptor, specialising in funerary monuments. Influenced by the Italian Renaissance and C17 art, he had a successful career, which culminated in his appointment in 1810 as the first professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy. Despite his recognition he died in debt, and was buried at St Pancras, rather than St Pauls Cathedral, as he had hoped.

Representations of Flaxman were made for the façades of Burlington House in 1874, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in c1904; he is also commemorated on the nearby Burdett-Coutts Memorial Sundial

Listing NGR: TQ2976583514