Editing Kensal Green Cemetery (section)

===Establishment and design===
George Frederick Carden had failed with an earlier attempt to establish a British equivalent to [[Paris]]'s [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in 1825, but a new committee established in February 1830,<ref name=survey/> including [[Andrew Spottiswoode]], MP for [[Saltash (UK Parliament constituency)|Saltash]], sculptor [[Robert William Sievier]], banker Sir [[Paul baronets|John Dean Paul]],<ref name=Kensal/> Charles Broughton Bowman (first committee secretary),<ref name=founders>[http://www.kensalgreen.co.uk/documents/KG_monuments_top.html Kensal Green Founders] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150605205710/http://www.kensalgreen.co.uk/documents/KG_monuments_top.html |date=5 June 2015 }}, Kensalgreen.co.uk, accessed 10 February 2014</ref> and architects [[Thomas Willson (architect)|Thomas Willson]] (who had previously proposed an ambitious [[Metropolitan Sepulchre]] project) and [[Augustus Charles Pugin]],<ref name=Arnold>{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=Catharine|title=Necropolis: London and its dead|date=2006|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=London|isbn=978-1416502487}}</ref> gained more financial, political and public support to fund the "General Cemetery Company". Public meetings were held in June and July 1830 at the Freemasons' Tavern, and George Carden was elected treasurer.<ref name=survey/>

Paul, a partner in the London banking firm of Strahan, Paul, Paul and Bates, found and conditionally purchased the {{convert|54|acres}} of land at [[Kensal Green]] for £9,500. Paul and Carden were already embroiled in a dispute regarding the design of the cemetery, where Paul favoured the Grecian style and Carden the Gothic style. A succession of architects were contemplated, including [[Benjamin Dean Wyatt|Benjamin Wyatt]] (who declined), [[Charles Fowler]] (proposal not taken up), [[Francis Goodwin (architect)|Francis Goodwin]], Willson, and a Mr Lidell, a pupil of [[John Nash (architect)|John Nash]], before an architectural competition was launched in November 1831. This attracted 46 entrants, and in March 1832 the premium was awarded, despite some opposition, for a Gothic Revival design by Henry Edward Kendall;<ref name=Arnold/> this decision was eventually overturned.

On 11 July 1832, the Act of Parliament establishing a "General Cemetery Company for the interment of the Dead in the Neighbourhood of the Metropolis" gained Royal Assent. The Act authorised it to raise up to £45,000 in shares, buy up to 80 acres of land and build a cemetery and a Church of England chapel. Company directors appointed after the Bill received Royal Assent asserted their control and preference for a different style. One of the competition judges and a company shareholder, John Griffith of Finbury, who had previously produced working drawings for a boundary wall,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Curl |first1=James Stevens |title=A Celebration of Death |date=1980 |publisher=Constable |isbn=0094630003 |page=218}}</ref><ref>''The Builder, Obituary of John Griffith'' 1888, volume 55, page 345</ref> ultimately designed the cemetery's two chapels and the main gateway<ref name=survey>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=49882 "Kensal Green"], Survey of London: volume 37: Northern Kensington (1973), pp. 333–339. Accessed 10 February 2014.</ref> and 15,000 trees were supplied and planted by [[Hugh Ronalds]] from his nursery in [[Brentford]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ronalds|first=B.F.|date=2017|title=Ronalds Nurserymen in Brentford and Beyond|journal=Garden History|volume=45|pages=82–100}}</ref> Founded as the General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, the cemetery was the first of the "[[Magnificent Seven, London|Magnificent Seven]]" [[Rural cemeteries|garden-style cemeteries]] in London. It was consecrated on 24 January 1833 by [[Charles James Blomfield]], the Bishop of London, receiving its first funeral the same month.

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Metropolitan Interments Act 1850
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to make better Provision for the Interment of the Dead in and near the Metropolis.
| year                  = 1850
| citation              = [[13 & 14 Vict.]] c. 52
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 5 August 1850
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In the early 1850s, after a series of [[cholera]] epidemics in London caused an examination of London's burial facilities, health commissioner [[Edwin Chadwick]] proposed the closure of all existing burial grounds in the vicinity of London other than the privately owned Kensal Green Cemetery, north-west of the city, which was to be [[nationalisation|nationalised]] and greatly enlarged to provide a single burial ground for west London. (A large tract of land on the [[Thames]] around {{convert|9|mi}} south-east of London in [[Abbey Wood]] was to become a single burial ground for east London.<ref>{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=John M.|title=The Brookwood Necropolis Railway, Locomotive Press '''143'''|year=2006|publisher=The Orchard Press|page=9|isbn=978-0853616559|edition=4th}}</ref>) The Treasury was sceptical that Chadwick's scheme would ever be financially viable, and it was widely unpopular.<ref>{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=Catherine|title=Necropolis:London and its dead|year=2006|publisher=Simon & Schuster|page=160|isbn=978-1416502487}}</ref><ref name=clarke2>{{cite book|title=The Brookwood Necropolis Railway|page=11}}</ref> Although the {{visible anchor|Metropolitan Interments Act 1850}} ([[13 & 14 Vict.]] c. 52) authorised the scheme, it was abandoned in 1852.<ref name=clarke2/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Glen|first1=William Cunningham |title=Metropolitan Interments Act, 1850, with introduction, notes, and appendix |date=1850 |publisher=Shaw and Sons |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/metropolitanint00glengoog |quote=Metropolitan Interments Act: 1850.|oclc=19522913 }}</ref>

[[File:A typical statuary detail, Kensal Green Cemetery.JPG|thumb|upright|left|A typical statuary detail]]