KENSAL GREEN CEMETERY
Inspired by the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, Kensal Green Cemetery was founded in 1833. It was the first of London's Magnificent Seven cemeteries, built at a time when existing church cemeteries in the capital were overflowing.
The cemetery comprises 72 acres of grounds, including two conservation areas, adjoining a canal. It is home to at least 33 species of bird and other wildlife. Most of the site was consecrated to the Church of England with the eastern section left for dissenters and others outside the Church
of England. Today, the cemetery welcomes all faiths.
Anglican Chapel Dissenters' Chapel
Henry Edward Kendall (1776-1875) John Griffith (1796-1888)
In 1832, architect Henry Edward Kendall received a hundred guinea prize for his design for the cemetery. But his winning entry was rejected for being 'too Gothic' by Sir John Dean Paul, chairman of the General Cemetery Company. Kendall's own tomb, which he designed, is prominent in the cemetery.
The architect and surveyor John Griffith got the job Kendall had won. His distinctive Greek Revival designs can be seen on the cemetery’s principal buildings, including the entrance
gateway, four chapels and catacombs. But Gothic styles became more prominent in the other large garden cemeteries that followed Kensal Green.
Paul family
GCC chairman John Dean Paul (1775-1852), a leading banker and respected artist, was heavily involved in financing the cemetery itself. His bank later collapsed in a fraud scandal for which his son, also named John Dean Paul, was imprisoned. Father and son are both interred in the Paul family mausoleum.
Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843)
The sixth son and ninth child of George III's fifteen offspring, Augustus was known for his
liberal views and his support for parliamentary reform, religious toleration
and the abolition of slavery. He was also a keen collector of books and
manuscripts. He was the favourite uncle of Queen Victoria and gave her away at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. The Duke of Sussex married twice, on both occasions without the approval of the king, contravening the Royal Marriages Act of 1772. So, wishing to be buried alongside his second wife Cecilia (1793–1873), the Duke could not be buried at Windsor and was laid to rest with his wife at Kensal Green, making him one of its earliest royal residents.
Princess Sophia (1777-1848)
The fifth daughter and twelfth child of King George III, Princess Sophia never married although it was rumoured that she had an illegitimate child, fathered by her father's equerry. She spent much of her later life within the royal household, becoming increasingly blind in old age and dying at Kensington Palace in 1848, aged 70. She was subsequently buried at Kensal Green, having left a letter with her banker explicitly asking to be laid to rest near her brother Augustus.
Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge (1819-1904)
Grandson of George III and Queen Victoria's first cousin, Prince George was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army from 1856 to 1895. His long tenure made him a powerful and often conservative influence on military affairs, known to stubbornly refuse all attempts to reform the army. His
marriage to actress Sarah Louisa Fairbrother (stage name Mrs FitzGeorge) was not recognised by the Crown. So he couldn't go in the
royal vault at Windsor and chose Kensal Green to be beside her. His wife and three sons were denied royal titles so there was no "Duke of Cambridge" until Elizabeth II revived the title for her grandson, Prince William, on his wedding day, April 29, 2011.
Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel
(1806-1859)
One family tomb, two engineering giants. Marc Isambard
Brunel masterminded the first tunnel under a navigable waterway - between Rotherhithe and Wapping. His son
Isambard Kingdom became one of Britain's most celebrated engineers, responsible
for projects including the Great Western Railway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge
and three remarkable steamships. Their shared memorial was designed by
Marc himself.
The HS2 Euston Tunnel TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines) passed under
the cemetery in early 2026, and engineers have installed a plaque 40 metres
underground marking the spot where trains will eventually travel directly under the Brunel family tomb.
Charles Babbage (1791-1871) Anne Isabella Noel, Baroness Byron (1792-1860)
Mathematician, philosopher and computing pioneer, Babbage designed mechanical calculating machines that included many features of later computers. He is often described as the father of computing. His brain was preserved and is held at the Hunterian Museum, Royal College of
Surgeons. In the science museum you can find a modern replica of his Difference Engine No. 2. It was designed to print mathematical tables that would be much more accurate than the hand-written versions used by Victorian engineers and scientists. But it was not built in Babbage's lifetime. Instead, it was constructed in the 1980s by the Science Museum from his 1847-1849 designs ....
Difference Engine No. 2, Science Museum
The museum ensured that the Difference Engine's 8000 components were manufactured to the engineering standards of Babbage's day. It made its first error-free calculation in 1991, two hundred years after the birth of its inventor. The engine can complete a complex calculation with every fourth turn of the handle on the side. The results - up to 31 digits long - can be printed on paper.
Known as Lady Byron, Anne Isabella Noel, was the estranged wife of the poet
Lord Byron. Anne's marriage to Byron was notoriously unhappy, and she
spent much of her later life away from him. Lady Byron is also commemorated on Kensal Green's Reformers' Memorial. The highly educated and religious woman was the mother and inspiration for mathematician Ada Lovelace, Byron's only legitimate child, Ada worked alongside Charles Babbage and is generally regarded as the world's first computer programmer. She predeceased her mother and was buried at St Mary's Church, Hucknall,
Nottinghamshire. The computer language Ada, used by the US Department of Defense/War is named after Ada Lovelace.
Charles Blondin (1824-1897)
Born Jean-François Gravelet in France, Charles Blondin became one of the world's most famous tightrope walkers (funambulists). He first made his name in 1859, when he crossed the Niagara gorge on a rope stretched above the rushing Falls. He repeated the feat in different guises, including carrying his manager on his back, blindfolded, on stilts, and stopping half-way to cook and eat an omelette. His grave at Kensal Green remains a focus for admirers, and an annual toast is held there.
Blondin, with his second wife Charlotte (above), retired to South Ealing in London in 1861. Shortly afterwards, he appeared on a high wire at the Crystal Palace, pushing his young daughter Adele in a wheelbarrow - without a safety net. Queen Victoria was watching - and was not amused. But nets only became standard in circuses after 1865 when Thomas Hanlon-Lees fell 40ft to his death.
Charlotte died in 1888, and is also buried here, as is Charles Blondin's third wife Katherine (d.1905).
Andrew Ducrow (1793-1842)
A celebrated equestrian performer and circus proprietor, Andrew Ducrow was known for spectacular acts performed on horseback. His elaborate tomb is among Kensal Green's most distinctive monuments. Controversially, it was originally painted in bright colours, now almost faded away. Ducrow managed London's Astley's Amphitheatre which burnt down three times. After the third fire, he suffered a mental breakdown and died shortly afterwards.
Cooke family
The Cookes were associated with Britain's travelling circus and equestrian entertainment traditions. Thomas Taplin Cooke (c.1782-1866) was the celebrated proprietor of Cooke's Royal Circus. He was also a funambulist and strongman who could balance a board carrying ten men on his chest. In 1836, his circus was one of the first to tour internationally when he chartered a vessel to take 130 performers to America - forty from the Cooke family - including his seven sons and five daughters, along with servants, grooms, bandsmen, and fifty-six horses and ponies. William Cooke (1808-1886), the second son of Thomas, was also a tightrope walker, acrobat and clown who once leased Astley's Amphitheatre. His brother Alfred was a circus manager, horse breeder and equestrian performer. Unfortunately, their famous family vault with its sculpted horse has seen better days. Thomas and William's wives, both called Mary Ann Cooke, were also laid to rest here.
Alexis Soyer (1809-1858), Emma Soyer (1813-1842)
and
A celebrity chef of the Victorian era, Alexis Soyer became famous for his cooking at London's Reform Club and for his efforts to improve food provision for the poor. During the Crimean War he worked to reform army catering, developing practical cooking equipment and improving soldiers' meals. His Grade II listed memorial at Kensal Green was designed by Soyer himself for his first wife Emma Soyer, a painter who died aged 28 during a miscarriage.
François Simonau was the stepfather of Emma Soyer. The Belgian portrait painter and lithographer had settled in London in 1815 and Emma became one of his pupils. In 1818 her mother Elizabeth Jones, a wealthy widow, paid Simonau to drop his other students and concentrate entirely on her talented daughter. Two years later, Elizabeth Jones and Simonau were married.
In 1835 Alexis Soyer asked Simonau to paint his portrait. Simonau delegated the task to his stepdaughter who fell in love with Soyer and, to Simonau's chagrin – "a mere cook!" – they married in 1837. After Elizabeth Simonau died in 1839, François went to live with the Soyers.
Thomas Hood (1799-1845)
The poet and humourist Thomas Hood is remembered for works ranging from comic verse to the socially conscious The Song of the Shirt, which highlighted the appalling conditions endured by poorly paid seamstresses. His gravestone carries the fitting inscription, “He sang the Song of the Shirt.” Plagued by financial woes and ill-health, Hood reportedly mortgaged his brain with his publishers in return for a cash advance. He died penniless and this memorial was erected by public subscription in 1854, nine years after his death. It originally carried a bust of the poet.
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)
A friend and collaborator of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins pioneered the sensation novel and is best known for The Woman in White and The Moonstone. The latter is often regarded as one of the earliest English detective novels. His plots were full of secrets, mistaken identities and startling revelations. Caroline Graves (c1831-1895) shares his grave. She was one of his two mistresses and the inspiration for Anne Catherick in The Woman in White. One of the most prolific Victorian novelists, Anthony Trollope wrote 47 novels, including the Chronicles of Barsetshire and The Palliser series. Unusually, he maintained a strict daily writing routine, often completing 250 words every 15 minutes before going to his day job at the Post Office. During his time in the Postal Service, he was credited with introducing the pillar postal box.
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) John Leech (1817-1864)
William Makepeace Thackeray was the novelist best known for Vanity Fair (1847), his satirical portrait of British society. Thackeray was also an illustrator, and his novels frequently exposed the snobbery, hypocrisy and social ambition of Victorian life. His daughter Anne became a writer in her own right. Thousands of mourners, including Charles Dickens, attended his funeral. Thackeray's novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon (1844), was adapted for the cinema in 1975. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Barry Lyndon was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning four. English caricaturist and illustrator John Leech was Thackeray's best friend and their graves are next but one to each other. A major
contributor to Punch magazine, Leech also illustrated many works for Dickens, including the first edition of A Christmas Carol, helping establish the visual image of a Victorian Christmas that has endured ever since.
John Tenniel (1820-1914)
Political cartoonist and illustrator, Sir John Tenniel is best remembered for his pictures for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. He also worked for Punch magazine for more than 50 years, producing influential cartoons on British politics and public life. His cremated remains are buried in the grave of his wife Julia Giani Tenniel (1824-1856) who died of tuberculosis just two years after they were married.
John Forster (1812-1876)
John Forster was a biographer, critic and close friend of Charles Dickens. His Life of Charles Dickens, published after the novelist's death, remains an important source for Dickens's life and work. Forster helped Dickens with his writing and business affairs and is thought to have been the inspiration for Mr Podsnap in Our Mutual Friend. Towards the close of 1875 the first volume of his biography of Johnathan Swift was published; and he had made some progress in the preparation of the second at the time of his death. His sister Elizabeth (d.1868) is also buried in the family plot. Forster left eighteen thousand books to the nation. Known as "the Forster Collection", it is held in the Victoria & Albert Museum and includes the manuscripts of every Dickens novel, except A Christmas Carol.
Terence Rattigan (1911-1977) Harold Pinter (1930-2008)
One of the leading British playwrights of the mid-20th century, Terence Rattigan wrote The Winslow Boy, Separate Tables and The Deep Blue Sea. His plays often explored repression, duty and the emotional lives concealed behind respectable appearances. He died in Bermuda and was cremated in Canada. His ashes were buried here in the Rattigan family plot, but his name was only added in 2023 when the memorial was restored.
Playwright, director and actor Harold Pinter was one of Britain's most influential dramatists. He received the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature. His plays, including The Birthday Party, The Caretaker and The Homecoming, are famous for their unsettling pauses, implied menace and the tension beneath everyday conversation. He was also active as a screenwriter and his collaborations with director Joseph Losey, The Servant (1963), Accident (1967), and The Go-Between (1971), are ranked among the high points of British cinema during that period. Pinter received Oscar nominations for The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) and Betrayal (1983), the latter from his play. He was married to actress Vivien Merchant from 1956 to 1980, and from 1980 married to author Antonia Fraser.
Lady Wilde, “Speranza” (1821-1896) Dolly Wilde (1895-1941)
Jane Francesca Agnes Wilde, known by her pen name Speranza, was an Irish poet and nationalist whose writing supported Irish independence. She was also the mother of Oscar Wilde and her own literary and political career deserves attention beyond her famous son. She was also a staunch advocate of women's equality, promoting better education for them. In January of 1896, dying of bronchitis, she was refused permission to visit her son Oscar while he was in prison; he was not permitted to attend her funeral. While in prison, he paid for her funeral, but her grave was unmarked until 1999 when the Oscar Wilde Society erected a Celtic Cross. Speranza is Italian for "hope".
Dolly Wilde was the niece of Oscar Wilde, daughter of his brother Willie. She was a witty, bohemian figure in the literary and artistic circles of Paris between the wars. She is buried alongside her mother, Sophia Teixeira (1859-1922). Dolly was known for her charm and storytelling, although she lived in the shadow of the Wilde family's literary fame.
Oscar Wilde is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris - the inspiration for Kensal Green Cemetery.
Mary Scott Hogarth (1819-1837)
Mary Scott Hogarth was Charles Dickens's beloved sister-in-law, whose sudden death at the age of seventeen profoundly affected the novelist. As the younger sister of Dickens' wife, Catherine, she met the author when she was fourteen years old and inspired many of his younger characters. She became a close companion of Dickens, and he valued her opinions on his writings more than anyone else. She died suddenly, possibly from an undiagnosed cardiac problem, in Dickens's arms. Dickens composed the inscription on her grave marker, a tablet on the front of the Hogarth family grave: "Young, beautiful and good God in his mercy numbered her among his angels at the early age of seventeen.”
Dickens was so traumatized by Mary's death that his wish was to be buried with her, only relinquishing the grave on the death of her brother George Thomson Hogarth (1821-1841). When Dickens died in 1870, he was laid to rest in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral. His wife Catherine (1815-1879) is buried at Highgate Cemetery together with four of their ten children.
Mary's parents, George Hogarth (1783–1870) and Catherine Hogarth (1793-1863) are also buried here. George Hogarth was a Scottish writer, music critic and
journalist who became a close friend of Dickens.
William Henry Smith (1792-1865)
William Henry Smith was the bookseller and newsagent who expanded his father's business into the nationwide chain that became WHSmith. His pink and grey granite chest tomb is topped with a marble bible.
The familiar high-street name began as a London news-vending business, serving the growing demand for newspapers and books during the 19th century. His great innovation was to use morning mail coaches to deliver the London papers to the provinces. His son, also William Henry, expanded the business, including opening bookstalls on railway stations, beginning with Euston in 1848.
Count Suckle (1931-2014) Steve Peregrin Took (1949-1980)
Jamaican-born Wilbert Augustus Campbell, known as "Count Suckle", was a DJ and club owner who was influential in the introduction of ska and reggae to Britain's 1960s music scene. In 1961, he became the resident DJ at the Roaring Twenties Club in Carnaby Street where his clientele included leading white musicians, including Georgie Fame, John Paul Jones and the Rolling Stones.
George Grossmith (1847-1912)
Actor, comedian, singer and writer, George Grossmith became famous for his performances in the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, including The Mikado and The Pirates of Penzance. He also co-wrote The Diary of a Nobody with his brother Weedon, creating one of the great comic portraits of lower-middle-class Victorian life.
Mary Eleanor Gibson (1854-1872) and Mary Howard Gibson (1832-1876)
The Gibson memorial is among the cemetery's listed monuments. Mary Eleanor Gibson died in 1872, aged 18, and her tomb is noted for its sculptural and architectural interest. But it's a bit of a mystery why such a lavish memorial was created for someone about whom little is known. Her mother Mary Howard Gibson, the illegitimate daughter of a Bristol shipbuilder, is also interred here. The marble sarcophagus within a Corinthian marble temple is topped by angels who originally held a ceramic wreath. Unfortunately, the expensive Italian marble is better suited to the Italian climate and now quite badly weathered.
William Mulready (1786-1863)
Next to the Gibson memorial is the tomb of William Mulready which is far better preserved having been made from (much cheaper) pulhamite (artificial stone). It was designed by Godfrey Sykes. The effigy of the Irish-born painter is based on his death mask. Mulready became famous for his genre paintings depicting everyday life. He also designed the illustrated envelopes introduced in 1840 with the Penny Black stamp. The envelopes themselves became known as Mulready Envelopes.
John William Waterhouse (1849-1917)
A painter associated with the later Pre-Raphaelite movement, John Waterhouse is particularly celebrated for The Lady of Shalott, based on Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem. His paintings often featured women drawn from mythology, literature and legend, rendered in richly coloured, romantic settings.
Dwarkanath Tagore (1794-1846) Daboda Dewajee (c. 1813-1861)
A wealthy Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist, Dwarkanath Tagore helped pioneer modern commerce in Bengal and was a prominent advocate of social and educational reform. A friend of reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy, he travelled to Britain in 1842, where he mixed with leading political and social figures. He was the grandfather of Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore.
Sitting behind Tagore's tomb is an Indian grave marker of North Indian sandstone on a weathered base of red British sandstone. A unique example of an Indian monument derived from Mughal examples, it was imported into England and marks the final resting place of Daboda Dewajee, an Indian judge.
Marigold Churchill (1918-1921)
Marigold, the fourth child of Winston and Clementine Churchill died of
septicaemia aged just two. She was initially buried at Kensal Green, but her
remains were later transferred to St Martin's Church, Bladon, where the
Churchill family is buried. Her headstone remains at the cemetery.
William Holland (1779-1856)
This elaborate - and at the time unconventional - family tomb is a Portland stone sarcophagus supported by eight fish-tailed griffins. William Holland was a furnisher of elegant establishments including Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Balmoral and various gentlemen's clubs including the Athenaeum. He also oversaw the funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852.
Decimus Burton (1800-1881)
A prominent architect of Regency and Victorian Britain, Decimus Burton designed imposing buildings and landscapes, including the Wellington Arch, Charing Cross Hospital, the Palm House at Kew Gardens and the Giraffe House at London Zoo. His Palm House, made of iron and glass, was the largest in the world at the time.
Andrew Pears (1766-1845)
Pears' (rhymes with 'peers') glycerine soap, first produced by Andrew Pears in 1807, was the first mass-market translucent soap. His pioneering marketing techniques turned his fragrant and non-abrasive soap into a recognisable consumer brand in Victorian Britain. After Andrew Pears's death, the company continued to produce iconic adverts under Thomas J. Barratt, who had married into the Pears family, most famously the poster (above) entitled Bubbles - purchased by Barratt from John Everett Millais in 1890. Barratt had also recruited actress Lillie Langtry to become the first celebrity to endorse a commercial product.
George Birkbeck (1776-1841)
John Saint John Long (1798-1834)
An Irish-born painter and quack doctor, John Saint John Long became notorious for claiming to treat tuberculosis and other illnesses using unconventional methods. His treatments included substances applied to the skin, and he was tried twice for the manslaughter of patients who died under his care. Convicted for one of these offences, he was fined £250 which he paid immediately in cash (around £37,000 today). The legend on his memorial begins: "It is the fate of most men to have many enemies and few friends".
John Elliotson (1791-1868)
A pioneering physician and teacher, Dr John Elliotson was among the first doctors in Britain to use the stethoscope and helped establish University College Hospital. He was a friend of Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray. His career suffered a serious setback when he championed mesmerism, or hypnotic influence, as a medical treatment. Elliotson's colleagues rejected his claims, and he resigned his hospital and university posts.
Herbert William Allingham (1862-1904)
Distinguished surgeon, researcher and medical writer, Herbert William Allingham was surgeon to the household of King Edward VII. His family monument includes a life-size figure of his wife Alexandrina (1868-1904) and her dog. She died eight months before her husband.
James Barry (c.1789-1865)
A military surgeon who rose to the rank of Inspector General of Hospitals in the British Army, Dr James Barry was known for improving medical care and sanitary conditions. His
Caesarean section in South Africa in 1826 was the first recorded by a European
physician in Africa in which both mother and child survived. After his death, Barry was discovered to have been born female as Margaret Anne Bulkley - who had lived as a man throughout her entire adult life.
William Beatty (1773-1842)
Sir William Beatty was the naval surgeon who attended Admiral Lord Nelson after he
was mortally wounded at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Beatty published an
account of Nelson's final hours, helping establish the familiar story of the
admiral's death aboard HMS Victory. The surgeon recorded that Nelson's final words were "Thank God I have done my duty" and not "Kiss me Hardy" which Nelson had said earlier. Beatty is buried in Catacomb A at Kensal Green, this wall plaque is beside the Dissenters' Chapel.
Robert Owen (1771-1858) Reformers' Memorial
Welsh-born industrialist and social reformer Robert Owen believed that better living and working conditions could transform society. At his New Lanark mills in Scotland, he introduced reforms including improved education for children and reducing working hours for women. He became a leading figure in the co-operative movement and is remembered as one of the pioneers of modern socialism.
Next to Owen's memorial is an obelisk erected in 1855 'to the memory of men and women who have generously given their time and means to improve the conditions and enlarge the happiness of all classes of society', with the names of fifty well-known reformers, including Owen and Lady Noel Byron (see above). Another twenty-five names were added in 1907.
Notable cremations
Many famous people have been cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery; in most cases the ashes were taken away.Freddie Mercury (1946-1991), singer in the band Queen - his ashes are believed to be buried at the base of the tree in the Garden Lodge Estate where he lived.
This plaque, under Freddie Mercury's birth name Farrokh Bulsara, was stolen so many times from Kensal Green Cemetery that the decision was eventually made not to replace it.
Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982), actress - her ashes were scattered in various locations in her native Sweden.
Joe Strummer (1952-2002), singer-songwriter in The Clash.
George Melly (1926-2007), jazz and blues singer, critic.
Alan Rickman (1946-2016), actor and director.
Christine Keeler (1942-2017), model - implicated in the Profumo Affair.
Gary Rhodes (1960-2019), chef.
Douglas Bader (1910-1982), British WW2 flying ace.
Anna Massey (1937-2011), English actress.
V.S. Naipaul (1932-2018), author.
Sir Edward Paolozzi (1924-2005), sculptor.
Ned Sherrin (1931-2007), author and broadcaster.
Mel Smith (1952-2013), comedian and actor.
J.G.Ballard (1930-2009), author - cremated at Kensal Green. He has this headstone there, but the cemetery says his ashes are elsewhere. Ballard is best known for his novels Crash and Empire of the Sun, both of which became motion picture adaptations.
John William Waterhouse, Marigold Churchill
John Elliotson
J.G.Ballard
Daboda DewajeeClick on map for printable version.
As usual, the accompanying portraits are courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery: For use in non-commercial projects (e.g. online in scholarly and non-profit publications and websites, blogs, local society newsletters and family history).
Visitor information: There is no café within the cemetery, and the two nearest pubs have permanently closed. Visitors looking for refreshments will need to head towards Ladbroke Grove, at the eastern end of the cemetery, where there are various cafés and eateries.
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