Group Of Five Chest Tombs, West Enclosure

635-1/0/10232 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Group of five chest tombs, West enclos ure

GV II Five chest tombs, early C19

LOCATION: 532617.3, 182242.6 (start); 532614.4, 182250.9 (end)

MATERIALS: Portland stone and brick with sandstone plinths

DESCRIPTION: The five chest tombs stand in a row near to the western entrance to the burial ground. From south to north they are as follows: * Stone chest with a coped lid, moulded cornice and base, corner pilasters with sunken panels, and stepped plinth; an inscription on one end reads: 'The family vault of John Travers of St Swithin's Lane and Clapham Surry 1838'. * Plain brick chest with flat stone lid and base, set upon a sandstone plinth; no inscription survives. * Stone chest with coped lid, raised and fielded side panels and moulded base; inscriptions on the panels commemorate Richard Barrett of Arbour Terrace, Stepney (d.1839) and various members of his family. * Stone chest with flat top, raised panels and moulded base, set upon a sandstone plinth; an inscription on the west end commemorates John Megnin of Shoreditch (d.1840); other inscriptions record the burials of various members of the Blott family. * Stone chest with flat top, raised panels with moulded edges, and moulded base, on a sandstone plinth set with iron studs; inscriptions commemorate various members of the Harwood family.

HISTORY: Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Thanks to its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, it became London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964-5.

SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902). A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: This group of five chest tombs are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * They form an impressive and coherent group of early-C19 chest tombs, most bearing legible inscriptions, marking the western entrance to the cemetery. * They are located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the west enclosure.