Kensal Green, (also known as All Souls Cemetery), London, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest:

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

In 1830 the General Cemetery Company was formed. The Company lobbied Parliament for an Act to license a new, non-denominational burial ground for London. In July of 1832 the Act of Parliament was passed, its progress no doubt assisted by a cholera epidemic. The Company selected a site on Harrow Road to the west of London, then open farmland. The Company initially purchased 22ha, of which 19ha were consecrated for the use of Anglicans and 3ha left as unconsecrated ground, primarily for the use of dissenters.

A competition was held to design the layout of the new cemetery, Henry Edward Kendall winning first prize for his Gothic design and second prize for an Italian one. Despite winning though, he was overlooked in favour of a now little-known architect named John Griffith (1796-1888), of Finsbury, who drew up an initial plan for the cemetery and its buildings. The principal buildings were the entrance gate, the Doric Anglican chapel at the end of the main avenue, the Ionic chapel for dissenters at the eastern end of the site, and the range of colonnades and catacombs to the north.

Edward Liddell, a pupil of John Nash, offered the Committee his involvement but again Griffith was preferred and was asked to produce a working plan. The trees were to be supplied by Hugh Ronalds of Brentford. It was this connection with Ronalds that led to the discovery of a new landscape designer, Richard Forrest, who for the previous five years had been head gardener at Syon Park (qv). Forrest's ideas for improving Griffith's plans met with criticism from the Committee, but a sub-committee, made up of Griffith and the architect A C Pugin, met with him and a modified plan was agreed. The result was an informal landscape park with a number of formal features. An article in the Gardeners' Chronicle in 1848 remarked that 'you perceive that as in Birkenhead Park [qv], the curve is the principal in the picture, while the straight line still appears in due relief' (Elliot 1996).

The cemetery was consecrated on 24 January 1833 and the first burial took place seven days later. Four years later the cemetery received the remains of Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, the sixth son of George III. Two other members of the aristocracy chose Kensal Green as their last resting place: Princess Sophia, the fifth daughter of George III who died in 1848, and the Duke of Cambridge (d 1904).

In 1862 a glasshouse was built to provide flowers for the graves. This was added to in 1866 and thirty years later the original glasshouse was rebuilt and used as an ornamental display house, with plants supplied by Frederick Sanders, the St Albans orchid nurseryman. This glasshouse fell into neglect in the late C20 and was finally demolished in 1994.

In 1939 a crematorium and memorial garden were developed in the south-west section of the site. During the second half of the C20 the site was subjected to vandalism and theft. Pressure on space in the 1980s led the Company to begin filling portions of the Circle Avenue with new graves. The official launch of the 'Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery' on 6 July 1991 marked the start of a programme of restoration works.

The site remains (2000) in private ownership and is managed as a working cemetery.