Monument To Joseph Watts, Middle Enclosure

635-1/0/10225 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Joseph Watts, Middle enclo sure

GV II Chest tomb of Joseph Watts, early C19

LOCATION: 532664.3, 182245

MATERIALS: Portland stone with inset slate panels

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a stone chest upon a flat stone base, with detached corner columns and a moulded lid. Set into each of the four faces of the tomb is a darker stone panel; those to the sides display inscriptions commemorating Joseph Watts (d.1836) and other members of his family, while those to the short ends have armorial bearings carved in relief.

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: The Watts family monument is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a well-preserved early-C19 chest tomb with still-legible inscriptions and high-quality relief carving. * It is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the middle enclosure.