Notes: The General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, is one of England's oldest and most beautiful public burial grounds, and certainly its most prestigious. One of the world's first garden cemeteries, and doyen of London's Magnificent Seven, Kensal Green received its first funeral in January 1833, and still conducts burials and cremations daily. The cemetery was innovative in having most of the site consecrated by the Church of England, but reserving the eastern spur for Dissenters and others to practise their own rites. Today, people of many faiths and denominations are buried throughout the cemetery. Uniquely among British cemeteries, Kensal Green has been managed by the same private joint-stock company since its inception: the General Cemetery Company (est. 1830) still has its offices by the Main Gate. The cemetery now covers some 72 acres (29 hectares) between the Grand Union Canal and Harrow Road in west London, and is open to visitors every day of the year.
The plan for London's first garden cemetery was initiated by the barrister George Frederick Carden, who was inspired by a visit to Père-Lachaise in Paris in 1821. Alert both to the need for new burial grounds, and the commercial potential of the venture, Carden founded the General Cemetery Company in 1830, with influential supporters including Andrew Spottiswoode MP and the banker John Dean Paul of Rodburgh, Bart. The cemetery was established by Act of Parliament which had its final reading in July 1832, during a cholera epidemic -- a coincidence that implicitly made the case for reform. The Bishop of London consecrated the first 48 acres in January 1833, and the first funeral was conducted a week later. Boardroom dramas saw Carden excluded from the company he founded, but Kensal Green went on to weather financial crises, changing fashions, even wartime bombing, to become a national necropolis of the great and the good, a valued local institution, and a heritage site of international importance.
Matches 1 to 2 of 2
Last Name, Given Name(s) | Buried | Person ID | Tree | ||
1 | Marchant, Elizabeth | 22 Sep 1937 | Kensal Green Cemetery, London, England | I1643 | Mitchell Families |
2 | Wooster, David | Sep 1888 | Kensal Green Cemetery, London, England | I24135 | Mitchell Families |