Chest Tomb With Cherub Balusters, South Enclosure

635-1/0/10268 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Chest tomb with cherub balusters, Sout h enclosure

GV II Chest tomb, probably early C18

LOCATION: 532743.1, 182214

MATERIALS: Portland stone

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a stone chest and a flat top, the latter supported at the corners by four carved amorini (winged cherubs' heads). The inscription is no longer legible.

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 monument is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a Baroque chest tomb of highly unusual form, probably dating from the early C18; * 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.