Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is, since 1852, the first (and only) London cemetery to be Crown property, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Established by Act of Parliament and laid out in 1839, it opened in 1840. Consecrated by Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London, in June 1840, it is one of Britain's oldest and most distinguished garden cemeteries. Some 35,000 monuments, from simple headstones to substantial mausolea, mark more than 205,000 resting places. The site includes large plots for family mausolea, and common graves where coffins are piled deep into the earth. It also has a small columbarium, and a secluded Garden of Remembrance at the northern end for cremated remains. The cemetery continues to be open for burials. It is also known as an urban haven for nature. In 2014, it was awarded a National Lottery grant to carry out essential restoration and develop a visitor centre, among other improvements. The restoration work was completed in 2018.
Although the cemetery was originally established by a private company, it is now the property of the Crown.
Location
Brompton Cemetery is adjacent to West Brompton station in west London, England. The main entrance is at North Lodge, Old Brompton Road in West Brompton, SW5, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. There is another entrance at South Lodge, located on the Fulham Road, SW10 near the junction with Redcliffe Gardens.
History
By the early years of the 19th century, inner city burial grounds, mostly churchyards, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead. The (7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. cxxx) authorised the laying out of a new burial ground in Brompton, London. The moving spirit behind the project was the architect and engineer, Stephen Geary, and it was necessary to form a company in order to get parliamentary permission to raise capital for the purpose. Geary was appointed as architect but was later forced to resign. Securing the land – some 40 acres – from local landowner, Lord Kensington and the Equitable Gas Light Company, as well as raising the money proved an extended challenge. The cemetery became one of seven large, new cemeteries founded by private companies in the mid-19th century (sometimes called the 'Magnificent Seven') forming a ring around the edge of London.
The site, previously market gardens, was bought with the intervention of John Gunter of Fulham, and was in area. Brompton Cemetery was eventually designed by architect, Benjamin Bauda. At its centre is a modest sandstone domed chapel dated 1839; at its southern end, are two symmetrical long colonnades, now all Grade II* listed, in the style of St. Peter's Square in Rome, and flanked by catacombs. It was intended to give the feel of a large open air cathedral. It is rectangular in shape with the north end pointing to the northwest and the south end to the southeast. It has a central "nave" which runs from Old Brompton Road towards the central colonnade and chapel. During a 4-year restoration project that began in 2014, an original Victorian flooring with Bath and York stone radial pattern was uncovered underneath the chapel carpet.
Below the colonnades are catacombs which were originally conceived as a cheaper alternative burial to having a plot in the grounds of the cemetery. Unfortunately, the catacombs were not a success and only about 500 of the many thousands of places in them were sold. The Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 52) gave the government powers to purchase commercial cemeteries. The shareholders of the cemetery company were relieved to be able to sell their shares as the cost of building the cemetery had overrun and they had seen little return on their investment and there were few burials at first.
During World War II the cemetery suffered bomb damage.
Heritage status As a site, the cemetery is listed Grade I in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England. The chapel and each arcade quadrant is separately listed as Grade II*. Frederick Richards Leyland's is the only Grade II* listed funerary monument. Several other individual monuments are listed Grade II. They include: Tomb of Peter Borthwick and family Burnside Monument (to Iris Burnside drowned on SS Lusitania) Chelsea Pensioners Monument Tomb of Clement Family Tomb of Robert Coombes Tomb of Percy E. Lambert Mausoleum of Harvey Lewis Mausoleum of James McDonaldLeaflet entitled "Brompton Cemetery" issued by the Friends of Brompton Cemetery Tomb of Alfred Mellon Tomb of Barbe Marie Therese Sangiorgi (wife of Soho restaurateur August Kettner) Tomb of Samuel Leigh Sotheby
In all there are up to forty items associated with the cemetery which have a Historic England listing, including gates and telephone kiosks.
Burials Brompton was closed to burials between 1952 and 1996, except for family and Polish interments, of which there are over 300. In the 21st century it is once again a working cemetery, with plots for interments and a 'Garden of Remembrance' for the deposit of cremated remains. Many nationalities and faiths from across the world are represented in the cemetery.
Military graves From 1854 to 1939, Brompton Cemetery became the London District's Military Cemetery. The Royal Hospital Chelsea purchased a plot in the north west corner where they have a monument in the form of an obelisk; the Brigade of the Guards has its own section south of that. There are 289 Commonwealth service personnel of World War I and 79 of World War II, whose graves are registered and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. A number of veterans are listed in the Notable Interments. Although the majority of war graves are in the dedicated railed section to the west – also containing 19th century services graves – a number of servicemen's graves are scattered in other areas. Besides the British there are many notable Czechoslovak, Polish and Russian military burials.
Notable interments Alexander Anderson – Royal Marines general Tomasz Arciszewski – Polish socialist politician and Prime Minister of Poland in exile Sir Frederick Arthur – army officer James Atkinson – surgeon, artist and Persian scholar Acton Smee Ayrton – Lawyer and Liberal Member of Parliament for Tower Hamlets 1857–74 William Edward Ayrton – physicist Sir Squire Bancroft – actor and theatre impresario William Banting – undertaker and low-carbohydrate diet advocate Thomas Wilson Barnes – British Chess player Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh – Russian Orthodox émigré Metropolitan archbishop, medical doctor and author Joseph Bonomi the Younger – sculptor, artist, Egyptologist and museum curator George Borrow – author, traveller and linguist Peter Borthwick – politician Sir Leslie Brass – lawyer and civil servant Fanny Brawne – John Keats' muse, buried under her married name, Frances Lindon Stanley Brett – actor Sir James Browne – engineer Francis Trevelyan Buckland – zoologist Field Marshal John Fox Burgoyne and his son, Hugh Burgoyne RN – Victoria Cross recipient Henry James Byron – actor and dramatist General William Martin Cafe – Indian Mutiny hero and Victoria Cross recipient Sir William Wellington Cairns – Australian administrator after whom the city of Cairns is named Sir Duncan Cameron – British Army general Louis Campbell-Johnston (1861–1929) – founder of the British Humane Association Marchesa Luisa Casati – infamous Italian quaintrelle, muse, eccentric and patron of the arts John Graham Chambers – founder of the Amateur Athletic Association F. B. Chatterton – theatre manager Thomas Chenery – editor of The Times (1877–84) Hugh Childers – Liberal statesman Henry Chorley – literary, painting and music critic, writer and editor Campbell Clarke – journalist and author Joseph Thomas Clover – pioneer of anaesthesia Charles Coborn – music hall singer and comedian Hiram Codd – inventor of the Codd bottle Henry Cole – founder of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music, the 1851 Great Exhibition and inventor of the Christmas card Robert Collier, 1st Baron Monkswell – Lord Monkswell, Privy Councillor, Attorney General for England and Wales, QC, politician and judge and his wife Isabella Rose Charles Allston Collins – Pre-Raphaelite painter and brother of the novelist Wilkie Collins Thomas Cooke – sailor who fought under Nelson, later turned actor Robert Coombes – champion professional sculler Sydney Cotton – British Army officer and governor of the Royal Hospital Chelsea Thomas Crofton Croker – Irish antiquary, devoted to the collection of Irish poetry and folklore William Crookes – chemist and physicist Samuel Cunard – founder of the Cunard Line Thomas Cundy III – architect Thomas Cundy (junior) – master builder Thomas Cundy (senior) – architect Agnes de Selincourt – missionary and academic Sir James Bevan Edwards – army officer General Sir William Henry Elliott – army officer Corporal Joseph John Farmer – VC recipient Nellie Farren – stage actress Henry Farrer – artist Terence Feely – playwright and author Captain Alfred Kirke Ffrench – VC recipient of Indian Mutiny Walter Forbes, 18th Lord Forbes Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale – painter and stained glass designer Robert Fortune – botanist who introduced tea plant from China to India Sir John Fowler, 1st Baronet – railway engineer Tom Foy – comedian Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Craufurd Fraser – VC recipient Sir Charles James Freake – untrained architect and builder, creator of much of South Kensington Admiral Charles Fremantle – explorer, founded the Swan River Colony (Western Australia) and the city of Fremantle which bears his name Princes George and Emanuel Galitzine – film producer and Spitfire pilot Brian Glover (1934–1997) – television and film actor John William Godward – painter George Godwin – architect, journalist, and editor of The Builder magazine George Goldie – "founded" Nigeria Dr Benjamin Golding – founder of Charing Cross Hospital Maude Goodman – artist, buried under her married name, Matilda Scanes Lucy Gordon – actress General Sir Charles Gore John Gunter – landowner, secured the south entrance to the cemetery Field Marshall Frederick Haines Arthur Haliburton, 1st Baron Haliburton, British civil servant Corporal Thomas Hancock – VC recipient (unmarked grave) James Duffield Harding – landscape painter, lithographer and author Sir Augustus Harris – actor John Harrison – Royal Navy VC recipient Thomas Helmore – choirmaster and author of books on plainsong Admiral Algernon Heneage Ian Hetherington – video game pioneer Tim Hetherington – photojournalist Rowley Hill – Bishop of Sodor Francis Edwin Hodge - Artist Sir Harold Hood, 2nd Baronet Colonel William Hope – VC recipient Jean Ingelow – poet and novelist John Jackson – boxer Geraldine Jewsbury – writer Mary Anne Keeley – actress Robert Keeley – actor and comedian William Claude Kirby – first chairman of Chelsea Football Club J. P. Knight – Inventor of the first traffic light Dr. Antoni Kutek – wartime medical officer of the MS Batory. His grave is by Mieczysław Lubelski Constant Lambert – composer and conductor Kit Lambert – music producer and original manager of The Who Percy E. Lambert – racing car driver Nat Langham – middleweight bare-knuckle boxing champion from 1843 to 1853 John Leslie-Melville, 9th Earl of Leven Sir Edward Letchworth – prominent Freemason Frederick Richards Leyland – shipowner and art collector Bernard Levin – journalist, author and broadcaster Sir John Scott Lillie – Peninsular War veteran, local landowner, inventor and social reformer Ralph Robert Wheeler Lingen, 1st Baron Lingen (1819–1905)