Lansdown Cemetery, Entrance Gates, Piers And Walls

LANSDOWN ROAD (West side) Lansdown Cemetery, entrance gates, piers and walls 11/08/72

GV II*

Portico, gates, walls and railings to Lansdown cemetery.1848 by HE Goodridge. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, double Roman tile roof and cast iron railings. EXTERIOR: The main feature is the imposing Greek-style portico. It has a shallow-pitched forward-facing gable with a dentil and dogtooth cornice, clasping pilasters with similar cornices and Greek-cross finials to semicircular caps. A bellcote to the front of the ridge reflects the style. In the apex of the gable is a small cross in a circle over a wide semicircular arch with ornate mouldings and engaged colonnettes with scroll moulded capitals. The intrados has four bands of moulding; double nine-panel gates have six pierced cast iron panels to the top of each and fielded panels below. Flanking the arch are similar four-panel pedestrian gates. A rich frieze at impost level, approx 2.5m high, follows the contours of the pilasters and flanking walls for approx 6m to each side. The walls have stepped plinths and three circular panels below the frieze. Higher cruciform-plan terminal piers have caps formed of interlocking half-cylinders with fish-scale surfaces, all with decorative ends. Curving forward, on stepped granite plinths approx 1m high and 3m long, are cast iron arcaded railings more than 1m high with dentil cornices and fleur-de-lys spikes. Outer terminal piers to the railings are similar, lower and more elaborate. The plinth continues to five panels approx 5m long to each side with similar piers (probably formerly with railings), formerly part of Beckford's tomb at the Abbey cemetery (see below). HISTORY: These gates are among the most remarkable to adorn any early Victorian cemetery. They display a characteristically eclectic fusion of styles, and provide an interesting commentary on the development of Goodridge's art; Goodridge lies buried within. The outer piers and railings, also designed by Goodridge, originally formed the surround for William Beckford's tomb in Abbey Cemetery after his burial in 1844. They were moved to Lansdown when the Duchess of Hamilton (Beckford's daughter) presented the Tower (qv) and land to the Rector of Walcot to prevent them from becoming a beer-garden and so that her father could be buried here, in the spot he had desired to be laid to rest. The gate was restored by the Bath Preservation Trust in c2000. SOURCES: (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 216; James Lees-Milne, `William Beckford' (1976), 119; Jackson N: Nineteenth Century Bath - Architects and Architecture: Bath: 1991-: 215; Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840: London: 1978-: 352).

Listing NGR: ST7380567553