Summary

Portland stone funerary monument, c1870.

Description

Portland stone two-stage monument with pink Peterhead granite shafts, commemorating the life of Joseph Allmond Cropper (died c1870). The lower section is in the form of a tall square pedestal, blind, with cusped arched openings on each side below a corbel table; those on the east and west sides have relief sculptures of acts of mercy inscribed 'I was sick and ye visited me' and 'A stranger and ye took me in' (Matthew 25.35-36). Granite shafts to the angles. The upper section consists of a statue of Christ the Good Shepherd, within a tall pyramidal canopy carried on four colonettes of pink granite, with a trefoil-headed opening to each face.

History

The Cemetery of All Souls at Kensal Green was the earliest of the large privately-run cemeteries established on the fringes of London to relieve pressure on overcrowded urban churchyards. Its founder George Frederick Carden intended it as an English counterpart to the great Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, which he had visited in 1821. In 1830, with the financial backing of the banker Sir John Dean Paul, Carden established the General Cemetery Company, and two years later an Act of Parliament was obtained to develop a 55-acre site at Kensal Green, then among open fields to the west of the metropolis. An architectural competition was held, but the winning entry – a Gothic scheme by HE Kendall – fell foul of Sir John's classicising tastes, and the surveyor John Griffith of Finsbury was eventually employed both to lay out the grounds and to design the Greek Revival chapels, entrance arch and catacombs, built between 1834 and 1837. A sequence of royal burials, beginning in 1843 with that of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, ensured the cemetery’s popularity. It is still administered by the General Cemetery Company, assisted since 1989 by the Friends of Kensal Green.

Reasons for Listing

The monument to Joseph Allmond Cropper is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Artistic interest: an exceptionally opulent Gothic memorial, loosely based on medieval Italian exemplars;
* Group value: with other listed monuments within the Grade I registered Kensal Green Cemetery.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27086908

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House