The Anglican Chapel of Kensal Green Cemetery is Grade I Listed -- that is, nationally recognised as a building of 'exceptional interest' both architecturally and historically. It is a fine example of Greek Revival architecture, and a rare survivor among the chapels of the first British garden cemeteries. It was built to designs by John Griffith FRIBA (1796-1888), after an architectural competition won by the Gothic Revival designs of Henry Edward Kendall (1776-1875).

The Anglican Chapel was completed by April 1838. It replaced a temporary wooden chapel built five years earlier on the insistence of the Bishop of London, who refused to consecrate the burial ground until a suitable building was provided in which to conduct funerals. (In the event, he consecrated the greater part of the cemetery on 24 January 1833, and the first funeral -- of Margaret Gregory, wife of the journalist Barnard Gregory -- was conducted one week later.) The splendid new chapel contributed to the initially slow but inexorably steady rise of Kensal Green as the most prestigious of London's new suburban cemeteries, a cachet sealed by the funerals of HRH Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843) and that of his sister, HRH Princess Sophia (1777-1848). Ominously, the building suffered its first attack of dryrot just as the first royal funeral began to attract the carriage trade to the idea of interment within the handsomely landscaped garden cemetery, rather than the overcrowded and malodorous parish church. It was quickly repaired, but over 170 years, the Anglican Chapel has faced many of the challenges of a valued public building in regular use, from routine maintenance and modernisation to the alarming proximity of a gasworks from the 1870s and bombs during the London Blitz.

During the summer of 2003, dryrot again caused a fall of masonry from the cornice, forcing the chapel to close to visitors and funerals at a loss to the community, the General Cemetery Company and the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery. It is apparent at a glance that the plaster walls and panelling, furniture and fixtures of the chapel, the exterior walls of the main building and colonnades, facilities such as the adjacent storerooms and public toilets, and indeed the extensive catacomb beneath the chapel complex, are all in need of immediate attention.

We have now received quotations for a fully-costed repair survey, as the first step toward restoration, and we are preparing a funding application to English Heritage for financial assistance to conduct the survey. This in turn will form an essential part of our application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the full restoration of the chapel. We thus urgently need to raise funds to support this important work. warmly welcome all donations toward this project, and appeal to members to contact uswith suggestions for suitable fundraising projects, offers of assistance or gifts in kind. The Grade II* Listed Dissenters’ Chapel and Gallery -- nearly destroyed by wartime bombing -- were restored by the Friends in just this way ten years ago and are now used regularly for a variety of FOKGC and community activities.

To contribute, please contact the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery:

The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery
c/o The General Cemetery Company
London W10 4RA
UK