History in Structure

Monument to Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

A Grade II Listed Building in Queens Park, London

We don't have any photos of this building yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?

Upload Photo »

Approximate Location Map
Large Map »

Coordinates

Latitude: 51.5284 / 51°31'42"N

Longitude: -0.2239 / 0°13'26"W

OS Eastings: 523302

OS Northings: 182548

OS Grid: TQ233825

Mapcode National: GBR BD.G6N

Mapcode Global: VHGQR.2VH6

Plus Code: 9C3XGQHG+9C

Entry Name: Monument to Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks

Listing Date: 3 April 2012

Grade: II

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1403615

ID on this website: 101403615

Location: Kensal Green Cemetery, Kensal Green, Kensington and Chelsea, London, W10

County: London

District: Kensington and Chelsea

Electoral Ward/Division: Queens Park

Parish: Non Civil Parish

Built-Up Area: Brent

Traditional County: Middlesex

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Greater London

Church of England Parish: St Michaell and All Angels Ladbroke Grove

Church of England Diocese: London

Tagged with: Monument

Find accommodation in
Willesden

Summary


Peterhead granite funerary ledger, dated 1897.

Description


A two-tier Peterhead granite raised ledger with a raised floreate cross running the length of the top. The sides of the upper stage carry the dedication: ' Augustus Wollaston Franks KCB President of the Soc. Antiq. London Sometime Keeper in the British Museum. Born March 20, 1826. Died May 21, 1897. RIP.' The lower stage carries a memorial dedication to Franks's sister, Frederica Annie Somerville Franks (1840-1913).

History


Augustus Wollaston Franks was born in Geneva in 1826 and educated at Eton College and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he devoted himself to antiquarian studies. He was one of the founders of the Cambridge Architectural Society and a member of the Ray Society and the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. Having moved to London in 1849, he became influential in the newly founded Archaeological Institute, where he organised the annual exhibitions and gained a deep knowledge of European antiquities. He was honorary secretary to the organising committee of the medieval exhibition held at the Royal Society of Arts in 1850, and, as a result of this work, was appointed to a newly-created post at the British Museum to oversee the establishment of a collection of British antiquities, which had been recommended by a royal commission in 1850. In 1866 he became Keeper of the new department of British and medieval antiquities and ethnography. He had a decisive influence on the Museum's collecting policy, using his considerable inherited wealth to make numerous acquisitions on its behalf, and persuading the Trustees to acquire other important collections when they came on the market. He was also a major scholar and collector in his own right, and published across an extraordinarily wide range of fields from Chinese paintings and Indian sculpture to the megalithic monuments of the Netherlands.

The Cemetery of All Souls at Kensal Green was the earliest of the large privately-run cemeteries established on the fringes of London to relieve pressure on overcrowded urban churchyards. Its founder George Frederick Carden intended it as an English counterpart to the great Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, which he had visited in 1821. In 1830, with the financial backing of the banker Sir John Dean Paul, Carden established the General Cemetery Company, and two years later an Act of Parliament was obtained to develop a 55-acre site at Kensal Green, then among open fields to the west of the metropolis. An architectural competition was held, but the winning entry – a Gothic scheme by HE Kendall – fell foul of Sir John's classicising tastes, and the surveyor John Griffith of Finsbury was eventually employed both to lay out the grounds and to design the Greek Revival chapels, entrance arch and catacombs, which were built between 1834 and 1837. A sequence of royal burials, beginning in 1843 with that of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, ensured the cemetery’s popularity. It is still administered by the General Cemetery Company, assisted since 1989 by the Friends of Kensal Green.


Reasons for Listing


The monument to Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-1897) is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Artistic interest: a simple monument whose design reflects the occupation of the principal person commemorated;
* Historic interest: commemorates a leading mid-C19 museologist who played an important role in the development of the British Museum;
* Group value: with other listed monuments within the Grade I registered Kensal Green Cemetery.



External Links

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

Other nearby listed buildings

BritishListedBuildings.co.uk is an independent online resource and is not associated with any government department. All government data published here is used under licence. Please do not contact BritishListedBuildings.co.uk for any queries related to any individual listed building, planning permission related to listed buildings or the listing process itself.

British Listed Buildings is a Good Stuff website.