Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (also known as The Great Dissenters' Burial Ground, Finsbury Fields, Tindall's Burial Ground, 'God's Acre')

www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

Bunhill Fields is a Nonconformist burial ground of the 1660s, with its current boundaries established by the mid-C18. In 1867 it closed for burials and became a public garden, at which time new walls, gate piers and gates were built and paths laid out. In the intervening years, there had been around 123,000 burials, and grave-markers and tombs survive from every period of the ground's use, the oldest being that of Theophilus Gale d 1678. The most recent major phase in the history of Bunhill Fields began after WWII, when the northern part of the ground was cleared following bomb damage and the southern section re-landscaped to designs by Bridgewater & Shepheard.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION

Bunhill Fields lies just without the former walls of the City of London, in what is now a densely-developed urban environment, but would have originally been on the fringes of the metropolis. There are two other Nonconformist burial grounds nearby: a Quaker burial ground on Chequer Street (now a public garden with few historic features) and the burial ground to Wesley's Methodist Church on the City Road which contains the tomb of John Wesley (d.1791).

AREA

The area is roughly T-shaped, with the main thoroughfare running west-east along the broader southern part of the burial ground. The flagstones on the east-west path are notable, for both their size, traces of inscriptions and the subtle erosion of their central sections.

The southern section is divided into five areas, railed off in 1965. Here there are over two thousand monuments: mostly simple Portland or sandstone headstones; some chest tombs; some ledger stones; a few grander monuments. The contrast with Victorian cemeteries and burial grounds is marked. The monuments are almost entirely Portland stone, with some in sandstone brought in by the late Georgian canal network; few railway-era materials such as granite or cast-iron railings are in evidence. The symbolism (where it can still be discerned) is of a traditional, pre-Victorian kind and overall the flavour of the monuments is fairly plain, as befitting their Nonconformist associations. The gravemarkers are cramped together, defying the geometry of the orthogonal plan to give a sense of the densely-thronged nature of Georgian burial grounds that so shocked Victorian reformers. Metal plaques fixed on the southern wall survive and were part of the former system to locate graves, in conjunction with the burial registers.

Straight and winding paths run through the densely-packed burials. Trees include London planes, oaks and limes. The headstones and tombs are in various stages of decay, some upright, others fallen, with the inscriptions and decorative carving indecipherable and distorted on those in the path of the prevailing south-westerly wind. The antiquarian's loss is the aesthete's gain, however, for the organic patterns of weathering and decay are highly poignant. There is a striking chiaroscuro effect where the wind and rain have cleaned parts of the soot-covered stone.

In contrast, the northern part is grassed, with scattered tombs alongside the circular perimeter path and against the boundary walls. There are flower beds set in paving of brick or re-used headstones. Lavatories and the gardeners' hut are on the east side of this zone. Two north-south paths, one broad, the other narrow, both paved with re-used York stone and brick, link this garden to the main west-east thoroughfare. The broadwalk takes in the Bunyan and Defoe tombs, in their original locations, and the resited Blake and Swain headstones. While clearing bomb-damaged burial grounds was common practice after WWII, the special treatment given to Bunhill Fields, as seen in the commissioning of a renowned landscape designer and the use of salvaged York stone for the paving, is unusual. The realignment of paths to focus on Bunyan, Blake and Defoe in the 1960s scheme has historic interest in the context of post-war national pride and identity.

BOUNDARIES

The burial ground is bounded by walls, railings and gates dating to 1868 (east side) and 1878 (west side), both separately listed. A listed brick wall to the south dates to the C18 or early C19 whilst the northern side of the burial ground is bounded by brick walls of 1964-5. The eastern boundary comprises a low coped wall of dressed stone between five granite piers, the piers square in plan and coped and gabled in a Greek Revival manner. The piers record the history of the burial ground and the names of some of the luminaries buried there, quoting verbatim an earlier inscription on C17 gate piers recorded by Strype in 1720. The railings have spearhead standards and finials and are gathered at intervals in clusters of eight. There are iron gates in second bay from the north. The western boundary, also separately listed, is a low brown brick wall in Flemish bond surmounted by fourteen square brick piers, capped with stone. Iron railings with bracketed supports are set in a plinth of cast-iron, with gates in the sixth bay from the north.

OTHER ITEMS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST

There are a number of listed tombs in Bunhill Fields Cemetery, some designated at high grades. Most are located in the southern part of the burial ground, with others along the western perimeter of the grassed area to the north.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION

Bunhill Fields is designated at Grade I for the following principal reasons:

* outstanding historic interest as the pre-eminent graveyard for Nonconformists in England

* a rare surviving inner-city burial ground which is unsurpassed as evidence for the cramped appearance of metropolitan burial grounds in the Georgian period

* a large number of listed tombs, notable either for the person they commemorate (for example, Blake, Bunyan and Defoe) or their artistic quality

* distinctive aesthetic character in contrast to Victorian cemeteries, with monuments almost entirely in Portland stone or sandstone

* an extremely well-documented place where antiquarians have recorded inscriptions from the 1720s and for which the City Corporation holds extensive burial records

* high quality design and materials of 1964-5 phase, by the renowned landscape architect Sir Peter Shepheard

FURTHER INFORMATION

Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902).

Jones, J, A, Bunhill memorials, sacred reminiscences of three hundred ministers and other persons of note... (1849).

Light, A, W, Bunhill Fields Volumes I and II (1915)

Meller, H & Parsons, B, London cemeteries : an illustrated guide & gazetteer (2008)

Rawlinson, R, The inscriptions upon the Tombs, Grave-Stones etc. in the Dissenters Burial Place in Bunhill Fields (1717, reprinted 1867).

Rippon, J, Manuscripts relating to Bunhill Fields Cemetery, early C19, at British Library (Ms.Add. 28516)

Stow, J, A survey of the cities of London and Westminster .... corrected, improved and enlarged by John Strype (1720).