Summary

Mausoleum of Harvey Lewis, c.1854

Description

MATERIALS: Portland stone mausoleum with cast-iron door

Square neo-classical mausoleum. Moulded plinth. Iron door in south side has three deeply recessed panels, that in the centre bearing a shield with 'Harvey Lewis' in embossed letters; the top ventilation panel has decorative openwork scrolls. Slim panels to either side of the door are duplicated on the other three sides, flanking large central panels. There is a pediment to each of the four sides; in the tympanum above the door are the arms of Harvey Lewis, the escutcheon bearing a lion passant on a chevron between three spearheads. This is surmounted by an ostrich-feather crest, with the Welsh motto 'Bidd Lu Heb Lydd' ('Unity and Strength') below. Railings surround the monument, the posts having neo-classical panels and pediments.

History

John Harvey Lewis (1814-1888) was born in Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the bar in Ireland in 1838 but relinquished practice in 1850, becoming High Sheriff of Co. Kildare in 1857. He was the Liberal Member of Parliament for Marylebone from 1861 to 1874, under Prime Ministers Palmerston, Disraeli and Gladstone. His first wife Emily Owen Lewis, whom he married in 1840, died in 1850 at the age of 36. Her body was placed in a vault in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin and later re-buried in the mausoleum at Brompton Cemetery in November 1854.

Brompton Cemetery was one of the 'magnificent seven' privately-run burial grounds established in the 1830s and 1840s to relieve pressure on London's overcrowded churchyards. It was laid out in 1839-1844 to designs by the architect Benjamin B Baud, who devised a classical landscape of axial drives and vistas with rond-points at the intersections marked by mausolea or ornamental planting, the latter devised by Isaac Finnemore with advice from J C Loudon. The main Ceremonial Way culminates in a dramatic architectural ensemble recalling Bernini's piazza in front of St Peter's in Rome, with flanking colonnades curving outwards to form a Great Circle, closed at its southern end in a domed Anglican chapel (the planned Catholic and Nonconformist chapels were omitted for financial reasons). The cemetery, never a commercial success, was compulsorily purchased by the General Board of Health in the early 1850s, and has remained in state ownership ever since.

Reasons for Listing

* Architectural: an imposing Portland stone mausoleum in a neo-classical style complete with railings and family crest;
* Group value: with other listed tombs in the Grade I-registered Brompton Cemetery.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27087570

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)