The Anglican Chapel

The Anglican Chapel, colonnades, and catacombs form part of Kensal Green Cemetery. Constructed between 1835 and 1836, it was designed by John Griffith for the General Cemetery Company. The building is primarily constructed of Portland stone and stucco.

The central chapel features a Greek Doric tetrastyle portico with a pediment above baseless, fluted columns, raised on a podium with steps in the centre. The inner, side, and rear walls are faced with channelled rustication. The front elevation has a central door with its surround, and a smaller door to the north. The rear elevation comprises paired pilasters flanking a rectangular window, with a segmental window above. The chapel is flanked by three-bay colonnades with nine-bay returns to the north and south. Each bay consists of a pair of fluted Doric columns set between pilasters, with anthemion terminals above the parapet over each column. The north and south colonnades terminate in square pavilions, originally roofed; the western pavilions commemorate the family of John Lough (north) and Robert Sievier (south) with marble memorial sculptures carved by Lough and Sievier respectively. Additional memorial plaques are located along the southern colonnade.

Inside, an antechamber, featuring a coffered ceiling, is screened from the chapel by a pair of Doric columns. The chapel itself is square in plan, with short extensions to each side. The centre is covered by a Soanian domical vault, fluted, with a central rosette within a Greek key-enriched border, and channelled pendentives with circular rosettes. A Doric frieze is carried on pilasters. A modern stained-glass window depicting Christ in Majesty is located in the west, with a segmental window inside a Greek key border above.

Beneath the chapel and colonnades lies an extensive system of catacombs. It contains a central spine corridor with six corridors on each side. These corridors have vaulted brick walls and ceilings, York stone floors, and shelving. Each corridor is lined with compartments filled with shelving for coffins, some concealed with marble covers and others screened with cast iron grilles. Each corridor terminates in a semi-circular ventilation shaft. A hydraulic catafalque, restored between 1995 and 1997, stands in the centre of the spine corridor, used for lowering coffins from the chapel to the catacombs.

The chapel sustained damage from bombing in 1940 and underwent restoration in 1954 under the direction of E.R. Bingham Harriss. The building retains stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops.