The Nonconformist Chapel, London Road Cemetery, Coventry. This was designed in neo-classical style by Joseph Paxton (1803-1865).perhaps in conjunction with one or both of his able architectural assistants, John Robertson (1808/9-1853) and George Henry Stokes (1826–1871), although neither is mentioned in this case (see Hall, who attributes the Anglican one to Robertson). [Click on these images to enlarge them.]
Early photograph of the chapel taken by chemist and photographer Joseph Wingrave, of High Street, Coventry, who would also be interred in the cemetery. Undated calotype, probably of the late 1840s.
English Heritage has given it a higher listing than the Anglican chapel, that is, a Grade II* listing. Located much lower down in the cemetery, yet hard to see in the old photograph on the right here, it is about 120 metres south-east of the Anglican chapel, and "in the form of a Classical temple of two giant storeys with fluted Ionic columns in antis with single-storey, three-bay pavilions to either side" (listing text). Again according to Historic England, the pavilions were intended as wall-space for memorial tablets. The cemetery's own website refers to its "austere simplicity," which was softened by surrounding it with "rich evergreens" — in contrast to the "rounded deciduous trees" beside the more "robust" Anglican chapel.
Recent photograph by Laurence Cooke; historic photograph kindly provided by Derek Robinson of the Friends of London Road. Captions by Simon Cooke; commentary and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.
Bibliography
Hall, Ann. "John Robertson of Baslow — Architect." Friends of Princes Park. Web. 31 July 2019. [This is a very useful and relevant piece of research.]
"London Road Cemetery, Coventry." Historic England. Web. 31 July 2019.
"The London Road Cemetery" (the cemetery's own site). Web. 31 July 2019.
Poole, Benjamin. The New History of Coventry, Being a Concise Account of its Ancient Institutions, Customs, and Public Buildings. Later ed. Coventry: D. Lewin, 1862. Google Books. Free Ebook. Web. 31 July 2019. [The cemetery's records show that, like the photographer Wingrave, Poole himself was buried here.]
Last modified 31 July 2019