Pottenger Family Monument, South Enclosure

635-1/0/10254 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Pottenger family monument, South enclo sure

GV II Chest tomb of the Pottenger family, 1761

LOCATION: 532641.4, 182204.9

MATERIALS: Portland stone and brick

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a stone chest with a coped lid and moulded base, sunk within a rectangular brick-walled well about three feet in depth. (This is said to represent the original ground level within the cemetery.) The sides of the chest have incised panels bearing the names of various members of the Pottenger family. The two end panels read, respectively, 'RICHARD POTTENGER'S Vault 1761' and 'The Within are Gone to Rest'.

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 Pottenger family vault is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a well-preserved C18 chest tomb with clearly legible inscriptions * Its unique sunken position vividly evokes the long history of burials on the site. * 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 south enclosure.