Tomb With Railings, East Enclosure

635-1/0/10217 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Tomb with railings, East enclosure

GV II Chest tomb with railings, late C18 or early C19

LOCATION: 532761.6, 182254.6

MATERIALS: Portland stone with wrought-iron railings

DESCRIPTION: The tomb is a simple stone slab resting upon a low moulded base and surrounded by spear-topped railings with urn finials at the corners and mid-points

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 (1915).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a late-Georgian tomb which, unusually, retains its original railed enclosure. * 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 east enclosure.