Events at Kensal Green
Tickets for special events must be booked in advance. Availability is limited, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Tours keep to the main paths, but sensible shoes -- and protection from sun or rain as the day demands -- are advisable.
Visitors are politely reminded that Kensal Green is a working cemetery which still conducts funerals daily, and that the bereaved may be visiting the graves of family or friends: those who come tours and events are requested to dress and behave with respect and consideration for all those in the cemetery on the day.
Visitors are welcome to take still photos of monuments and landscape for personal reference. Representatives of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery may take photographs of the event which will be used for FoKGC publicity purposes. Visitors are asked to let us know if they do not wish any photograph including a facial image of themselves to be used.
Formal permission is required for commercial photography and the use of models, amateur or professional, and for recording, filming and/or broadcasting of any kind, including webcasting: please contact the General Cemetery Company (www.kensalgreencemetery.com) directly for further information.
For further information and all tours and events enquiries, please contact Irina Porter (Trustee, Tours and Events) via tours@kensalgreen.co.uk
FoKGC Forthcoming Events
I.K.Brunel & Railway History At Kensal Green Guided Tour
Time / Date: 14:00 Sunday, 19th April 2026
Location: Kensal Green Cemetery
We will visit the Brunel family memorial and the graves of other railway engineers and promoters, telling the story of the development of the GWR which runs just south of the cemetery. The tour will be conducted by John Haines, Chartered Civil Engineer and Kensal Green tour guide.
The tour starts at the main pedestrian entrance on Harrow Road, close to the junction with Ladbroke Grove. It will last two hours and finish at the Dissenters’ Chapel, with hot drinks and Q&A.
Advance booking essential.
Tickets: £12.00 / Concessions: £10.00;
Members of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery: Free
Price: £12.00 / Concessions: £10.00
St.Helena to Kensal Green Exploring Napoleon’s Final Chapter
Time / Date: 10:30 Saturday, 20th June 2026
Location: Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is the last resting place for many veterans of the Battle of Waterloo which saw the final fall of Napoleon. It also houses the Admiral who took Napoleon to St Helena and at least three others who spoke to him there. The day will start with a talk about the historical events, followed by lunch and a tour of the cemetery, visiting some of the witnesses to these tumultuous events.
The event will be run by:
John Haines, military history expert and Kensal Green tour guide and trustee, will lead a walk in the cemetery looking at the monuments of notable military and civilian personalities
David Symington, a military history researcher and re-enactor, with special interest in social history, uniforms and weapons
Irina Porter, historian, Blue Badge Tour Guide and Kensal Green tour guide and trustee, specialising in cemeteries
The event will start at the Dissenters' Chapel. Lunch is included
Price: £25.00 / Concessions: £20.00 (Member Price: £8.00)
The Angels of Kensal Green
Time / Date: 10:30 Saturday, 15th August 2026
Location: Kensal Green Cemetery
“To Her”: Women in Cemetery Angels
A talk by Emma Liggins
The talk explores “beloved wives” and “beloved daughters” through the striking figure of the stone angel, revealing how commemoration of women both echoed and complicated the Victorian ‘celebration of death’. Through evocative epitaphs and richly symbolic sculpture, we’ll journey across some of Britain’s most remarkable memorial landscapes: London’s Highgate and Kensal Green cemeteries and Southern Cemetery in Manchester. Even after the First World War, the angel remained a familiar presence in remembrance, linked not only to mourning but also to cultural figures such as the “Angel in the House,” the fairy and the ghostly Angel of Mons. Whether envisioned as a celestial guardian or a grieving figure draped across a tomb, the cemetery angel remains one of the most powerful symbols of love and loss in funerary art. Join us to uncover the stories, symbolism and secrets behind these hauntingly beautiful monuments.
Dr Emma Liggins is a Reader in English at Manchester Metropolitan University and Co-Director of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies. She has published on women's ghost stories and Gothic fiction, and has a chapter on Neo-Edwardian Gothic in the recent collection Graveyard Gothic (2024). She is currently researching graveyards, memorials and ghost stories for her new book Victorian and Edwardian Death Spaces: Gender and Memorialisation, due out in 2027.
The Angels of Kensal Green
Guided Tour Led by Irina Porter
Continue the journey from talk to tomb on this guided walk through Kensal Green Cemetery, exploring the meaning and symbolism of its spectacular angels. You will encounter these powerful figures up close while uncovering the stories, beliefs and artistic traditions they embody. We will look at angels through literature, history, theology and art, to discover why they became such powerful symbols of comfort, protection and the hope of resurrection. The remarkable angels of Kensal Green will show us how their styles and meanings evolved from Gothic to the present day. Come and meet them for yourself!
Irina Porter is a London Blue Badge tour guide and historian with special interest in cemeteries. She is a Tour Guide and Trustee of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, volunteer tour guide at Willesden Jewish Cemetery and Chair and Journal Editor of Willesden Local History Society.
The event will start at the Dissenters' Chapel. Lunch is included
Advance booking essential.
Price: £25.00 / Concessions: £20.00 (Member Price: £8.00)
The Days of Giants: Joseph Locke and his generation of railway pioneers
Time / Date: 14:00 Sunday, 20th September 2026
Location: Kensal Green Cemetery
Joseph Locke is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. He was probably more influential on the development of UK railways than Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who is also buried here. This tour will look at his achievements and those of some of the other railway engineers and promoters, who found their resting place in Kensal Green.
The tour will be conducted by John Haines, Chartered Civil Engineer and Kensal Green tour guide.
Price: £12.00 / Concessions: £10.00
Prince George, Master Frederick and the Royal Secrets of Kensal Green
Time / Date: 10:30 Saturday, 14th November 2026
Location: Kensal Green Cemetery
Talk: Prince George and Master Frederick: Secrets behind Friendship
Join Ros Freeborn to hear what lies behind her story and discover the fascinating life of a boy raised in the shadow of the crown. This novel uncovers the fascinating story of Frederick Blomberg, the secret son of King George III, who was adopted into the royal household to serve as a playmate for young Prince George, the future George IV. In this talk, Ros will explore the rich history behind her novel, the intriguing dynamics of the royal court, and the process of bringing hidden historical figures to life through meticulous research combined with storytelling. The book illuminates the private lives, secrets and complexities of the monarchy, offering fresh perspectives on a familiar historical period.
Ros Freeborn is the author of Prince George & Master Frederick, her first published work, written after she investigated a family story linking her to George III and became captivated by the real history of Frederick Blomberg. Before turning to fiction, she built a career in arts PR and later retrained at City & Guilds as a fine artist, becoming a commercially successful collage artist who exhibits regularly.
Guided Walk: Courts & Characters: Royal Life at Kensal Green
A guided walk through Kensal Green Cemetery’s royal connections reveals the world of the Georgian and early Victorian courts during the reigns of George III, George IV and Queen Victoria. It was its first royal ‘residents’ who made Kensal Green the most prestigious cemetery of the 19th century. On this walk we meet members of the royal family, their friends, servants, librarians, diplomats, musicians, architects and artists, - all those who made up the ceremony, creativity and human drama of the institution of monarchy.
Irina Porter is a London Blue Badge tour guide and historian with special interest in cemeteries. She is a Tour Guide and Trustee of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, volunteer tour guide at Willesden Jewish Cemetery and Chair and Journal Editor of Willesden Local History Society.
The event will start at the Dissenters' Chapel. Lunch is included
Advance booking essential.
Price: £25.00 / Concessions: £20.00 (Member Price: £8.00)
Other Forthcoming Events
Mausolea & Monuments Trust
The following events run by the Mausolea and Monument Trust (MMT) may be of interest and can be booked on the MMT wesbite
Lazy Thinking, Lazy Sculpting: Why Contemporary Statues are All So Woeful - 9th April 2026 A further talk on sculpture by Alexander Stoddart, the King’s Sculptor in Ordinary in Scotland. With the demise of the teaching of art and art history in most of the art schools in the western world, so it is inevitable that the continued need for sculptural representations of famous people is served by those bereft of any knowledge of style and historic precedent. Accordingly, recent works of statuary seem bound to the photographic source, deserting the fundamental origin of any proper monument in design first and foremost. Many a modern bronze figure may be said to convey a very accurate account of the subject’s likeness, where precious few ever manage a true likeness of a statue of the subject. Professor Stoddart will expand upon the virtual extinction of the statue-sensibility which has so long served the Occident and Orient alike, to be replaced by a brutal and banal realism that smiles, waves, and kicks a football.View details
Lazy Thinking, Lazy Sculpting: Why Contemporary Statues are All So Woeful - ONLINE - 9th April 2026 A live stream of the talk on sculpture by Alexander Stoddart, the King’s Sculptor in Ordinary in Scotland.View details
Visit the MMT website for details and to book