Monument To Joseph Hart, North Section

635-1/0/10238 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Joseph Hart, North section

GV II Obelisk monument to Joseph Hart, 1875

LOCATION: 532653.4, 182281.2

MATERIALS: Red granite with iron railings

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a tall granite obelisk, set on a square pedestal with a pedimental cap and two-stage base; beneath is a low sandstone plinth surrounded by iron railings with fleur de lys finials. The inscription describes the events of Hart's life and commemorates the erection of the present monument in 1875 'by lovers of Hart's hymns, published in 1759 and still highly prized by the church of God'.

HISTORY: Joseph Hart (1711/2-1768) was an Independent minister and religious writer who achieved a lasting reputation as a hymnodist. Born in London, his early life was marked by a protracted spiritual crisis, expressed in his 1741 essay 'The Unreasonableness of Religion', affirming the opposition between faith and reason. A conversion experience on Whit Sunday 1757 marked his return to the fold; in 1759 he published his enduringly popular collection of 'Hymns &c Composed on Various Subjects', and from 1760 he was minister at the Jewin Street Chapel, where he attracted a large congregation. 20,000 people are said to have attended his funeral at Bunhill Fields in 1768. His work remained popular a century later, and in 1875 a subscription was raised to replace his original memorial with a more monumental structure.

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). JM Rigg, rev. John S Andrews, entry on Hart in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com (retrieved on 9 June 2009).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to Joseph Hart is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It commemorates a noted C18 religious writer and hymnodist. * It is an imposing granite obelisk, testifying to increasingly monumental late-C19 modes of commemoration. * 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 north section.