Abney Park Chapel [SEP] architect
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Abney Park Chapel


have spanned the inter-denominational divide. The design team included not only the architect William Hosking, but also the botanist and nurseryman George Loddiges. Moreover, the ethos of Abney Park Cemetery was distinctly botanical. The plans for the chapel therefore featured a nearby rosarium and a collection of American plants on the Chapel Lawn. This, combined with the unusual A to Z arboretum around the cemetery's perimeter, the pre-existing 'stately timber' or 'well timbered grounds' that included some early introductions of trees from North
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Abney Park Chapel


gothic revival. It was not until some years later this style was to become popular with nonconformists, whose interest lay purely in its aesthetics. At this date nonconformist clients did not commission the Gothic revival style, due to pressure to closely associate it with 'high church' uses, as was advocated by some early revivalist architects led by Pugin. By the time a chapel was built at Mount Auburn in Massachusetts, a few years after Abney Park's Chapel, the gothic (pointed) style was more commonly accepted by nonconformists
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Abney Park Cemetery


brick gothic yet with ample stone dressings and a little neoclassical design woven into its early Dissenting Gothic design style, had but one central chamber for the common use of all, and but one entrance. As such it was the first nondenominational cemetery chapel in Europe. William Hosking, in being handed the task of achieving this vision, became the first architect to design a nondenominational cemetery chapel in Europe. Underpinning this was a unique legal basis in comparison with the other garden cemeteries of its period; Abney Park was not set aside
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Abney Park Chapel


of a small design team consisting of George Collison II (acting as client for the cemetery founders, with a passion for Mount Auburn Cemetery near Boston, and it is said, Beverley Minster which dominated the skyline in his ancestral town); William Hosking (architect and civil engineer with an interest in Egyptology, antiquities, and architectural writing and scholarship); the builder John Jay, and George Loddiges (botanical scientist and horticulturalist primarily concerned with the setting of Abney Park Chapel, including its nearby rosarium and a collection of American
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Abney Park Chapel


Dr Watts' and Lady Mary Abney's former place of residence – Abney House, Church Street. Orienting the chapel this way proved problematic to engravers who took artistic licence to illustrate "Abney Park Chapel" as if it were aligned perfectly in between the main entrance pillars ! However, its purposeful 'turning away' from the commercial entrance to enable its most elegant facade to face a planned vista and walk in memory of Dr. Watts, was important to capture the spirit of the park. It symbolised the Abney Park Cemetery Company
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Abney Park Chapel


Abney Park Chapel, is a Grade II Listed chapel, designed by William Hosking and built by John Jay that is situated in Europe's first wholly nondenominational cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery, London. Opened in May, 1840, it was the first nondenominational cemetery chapel in Europe (and probably the world – since the chapel at Mount Auburn was a later addition). It helped pioneer the early use of the Dissenting Gothic building style, and encouraged renewed interest in the careful blending of earlier styles. It was primarily the work
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Abney Park Chapel


's deliberate land assembly of the Fleetwood House and Abney House grounds to conserve it for dedication to the life of Dr Watts, and in memory of his benefactor Lady Mary Abney. The cemetery company ensured that its official engraver, George Childs, issued a perspective of "Abney Park Chapel" ('Dr Watts' Chapel') along the axial vista of what was to be laid out as Dr Watts' Walk. This was distributed free to all shareholders. Dr Watts was an important figure for the cemetery founders. During
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Abney Park Cemetery


a profound purpose, since it was consciously opened as the first wholly nondenominational garden cemetery in Europe. True, other garden cemeteries sometimes used the term loosely, meaning only that they had laid out more than one denominational area or built more than one chapel. Abney Park Cemetery was the first to be laid out with "no invidious dividing lines" separating the burial areas of one faith or religious group from any other, and even its one chapel, the Abney Park Chapel, a feast of "Puritan" or northern European
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John Jay (builder)


with close relatives, because in 1806, an older Mr. Jay, who was also a builder with an address at London Wall, had already rebuilt the building that was later renamed the "Adelphi Theatre", designed by the architect Samuel Beazley. The first building known to have been built by John Jay was the Abney Park Chapel (opened May 1840). This project was soon followed by the Trinity Independent Chapel (opened 1841), both designed by the architect William Hosking, and St. Michael's Church in Stockwell,
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Abney Park Chapel


objectionable; yet offered only praise for the new principles of cemetery layout, management and design at Abney Park. Moreover, upon completion of the Abney Park Chapel, William Hosking was offered the post of professor of Art and Construction at King's College, than an avowedly the Anglican establishment, and John Britton, who had co-authored one of Pugin's books promoting gothic revival architecture, was soon to work in partnership with William Hosking to devise a restoration scheme in Bristol for an Anglican church. Thus Hosking could claim to
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Abney Park Chapel


plants on the Chapel Lawn). The first matters to establish were the design principles and layout. Since this was to be the first non-denominational chapel for a European garden cemetery, there were no existing guidelines. What should it look like? Where would it be most appropriately located within the park? How should it be aligned in the landscape? And which direction should it face? William Hosking, in discussion with George Collison II developed a plan to site the novel chapel at the very heart of Abney Park foregoing
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Abney Park Chapel


chapels or at best, a double-cell arrangement, Hosking's chapel was entirely unique to European cemetery design. That the eventual design for the chapel avoided the temptation towards eclectic over-adornment sometimes associated with excesses of romantic mediaevalism, for which the derogatory term "Gothick" can be used. By satisfying the Abney Park Cemetery Company Directors' preference for a "low gothic" style, William Hosking helped focus visual attention on the chapel's one elaborately designed elevation – the crenelated and decorated south elevation. This facade was
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Abney Park Chapel


nature' and the 'natural world' was an influence on Hosking's design since the overall cemetery project was conceived as a splendid botanical extravaganza, with the largest arboretum in the country, perfected by the famous George Loddiges. Whatever the explanation, Hosking's Abney Park Chapel was designed in a form of 'gothic revival' style, which for such an early date is believed to be the earliest example of 'gothic revival' architecture for a stand-alone or unconsecrated chapel. Being earlier than the mainstream use of '
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Abney Park Cemetery


training and cultural events and an annual summer open day. It is a designated Local Nature Reserve and Conservation Area. Apart from the South Lodge extension on the forecourt, Abney Park's freehold is owned by the London Borough of Hackney. The park is situated near Stoke Newington High Street, London N16, and it is leased to the Abney Park Trust. It occupies , which includes a nature reserve, a classroom, a visitor's centre and a central chapel which is disused. The park is normally opened by the trust
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Loddiges


Close to the Abney Park Chapel he also laid out a rosarium to complement the chapel's 'botanical rose windows' (described as 'botanical' owing to their unusual ten-part arrangement, as in the five sepals and five petals of the rose family, or petals of a simple rose including indentations as shown in the White Rose of York). George Loddiges also appears to have influenced the architect William Hosking and client George Collison II in their final choice of Egyptian Revival ornamentation for the main entrance, since the Egyptian
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Abney Park Chapel


. However, in the early Gothic revivalist period of 1838–40, when the chapel for Abney Park was designed, the use of the gothic style would certainly have conveyed a 'high church' note in conventional architectural circles. This implies that Collison and Hosking may have used the style as a deliberate architectural counterpoise to what some critics saw as their 'non western' or 'non Christian' style of entranceway ('Egyptian Revival'). Those who interpreted the chapel's gothic affiliations in this contemporary way, might therefore have
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Abney Park Cemetery


roof flashings of the Abney Park Chapel have been damaged by unauthorised climbing and theft at times when the park was left unsupervised and unlocked overnight, and this has resulted in water seepage into the chapel walls which is now causing serious problems to the whole building. Similarly, from time to time, some sections of boundary wall become too weak due to people climbing over them, and decay has set in. However these matters could be put right and the park is a popular place to visit, with a range of educational,
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Abney Park Chapel


special rosarium to bring attention to this rich and diverse plan family. The botanical rose windows would also have suited George Collison for his ancestral town was Beverley in Yorkshire, where he would have been familiar with the widespread use of the White Rose of York as a symbol and have seen it reproduced, taking up the theme of the rose, in the rare ten-part botanical rose windows of Beverley Minster. Ultimately the botanical rose windows at the Abney Park Chapel provided a strong symbolic detail that dovetailed the chapel to the design
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Abney Park Chapel


; one that epitomised its low gothic nondenominational function well, whilst establishing Abney Park as a local landmark visible from the thoroughfares of Church Street and the High Street, and from Woodberry Downs in the middle distance. Perfecting the chapel had necessitated a long process of iteration and re-design to meet the wishes of the Cemetery Directors for a new nondenominational style. William Hosking mastered the brief admirably, providing them with a chapel building that achieved the company's objective remarkably well, both in its choice of materials and style of design
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Abney Park Chapel


America from around 1700, and the plans for special interest tree collections along some of the northern and central walks, led John Loudon to describe Abney Park Cemetery as the most ornamented of the London cemeteries. This attention to an educational and botanical interest in landscape design was becoming fashionable through the work of John Loudon and his ideas of the 'gardenesque'. However, no garden cemetery in Europe had ventured to adopt this style to the degree it was employed at Abney Park. As Brent Elliot wrote in his "Garden History
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Bunhill Fields


of Abney Park in Stoke Newington. This was named Abney Park Cemetery and opened in 1840. All parts were available for the burial of any person, regardless of religious creed. Abney Park Cemetery was the only Victorian garden cemetery in Britain with "no invidious dividing lines" and a unique nondenominational chapel, designed by William Hosking. Following closure of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, its future was uncertain as its lessee, the City of London Corporation, was close to expiry of its lease, scheduled for Christmas 1867. To
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Abney Park Chapel


in Dr Watts' Walk in front of the "Abney Park Chapel" ? Endorsement of Hosking's place in architectural history along with the all important guiding hand of his client George Collison, came once the final design was agreed. The foundation stone was laid by Sir Chapman Marshall, Lord Mayor of the City of London in the presence of the Sheriffs of the City and County (although Marshall subsequently chose to be laid to rest in the Anglican catacombs at West Norwood Cemetery.) Though the purpose of Hosking's masterly orientation
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Abney Park Cemetery


the Independent's Bunhill Fields. Subsequently, his hymns and scholarly works had become widely used and referred to by many denominations, such that in the 19th century the Rev. John Stroughton could write: "Dr. Watts was as far removed from sectarianism as a man could be". Abney Park Chapel, sometimes referred to informally as Dr Watts' Chapel, became its spiritual and landscape focal point. It sits in the heart of the cemetery; its axial walk to Church Street, called Dr Watts' Walk, was chosen in
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Abney Park Chapel


" journal review of a reprint of Loudon's book on cemetery design (1843;1981 reprint), "It seems to me that much of what Loudon recommends is drawn from the example of Abney Park Cemetery". Today Hosking's novel chapel continues to merit acclaim as an outstandingly attractive architectural set piece of special importance amongst the Magnificent Seven London garden cemeteries of the time, and indeed throughout Europe. It also has significance in relation to the general evolution of ideas and schemes for nondenominational burial grounds and cemeteries, establishing itself as the
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Temple Lodges Abney Park


design from Africa was a bold step. Advocates of Gothic revival architecture, notably the polemicist and Gothic architect Augustus Pugin junior (1812–52), proved particularly critical of Abney Park's Cemetery's novel approach which was implicitly sympathetic to a "New World" outlook. By contrast, Abney Park's approach resonated perfectly with those who had close ties with America, principally Congregationalists and other nonconformist groups whose relatives had left for the New World to pursue political and religious freedom. For them, the proposed Egyptian Revival design symbolised the adoption
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Abney Park Cemetery


the south-facing facade of Abney Park Chapel in the cemetery. The names associated with the first cross are displayed a short distance away (inside the foyer of the public library on Church Street) whilst the names of those associated with the second cross (those who are interred in the cemetery but whose graves could not be given individual headstones) are recorded on a north-facing Screen Wall memorial added to the platform on which it stands. Near the cemetery cross, the names of Second World War servicemen who lost their
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Nathaniel Rogers (physician)


in an inscription over the iron grilled entrance gate. This was the only mausoleum ever permitted by the largely Congregational Board of the non-denominational cemetery, given their distinctly Puritan leanings against any such grandeur in death in their garden cemetery and stood on the principal axis between the Abney Park Chapel and historic gated entrance to Abney Park. Its paired windows were carefully positioned to permit the original axial vista to co-exist with the mausoleum, by way of a small north-south 'through-view'. The Rogers'
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Isaac Watts


Chapel at Dr Watts' Walk, Abney Park Cemetery, was erected in 1845 by public subscription. It was designed by the leading British sculptor, Edward Hodges Baily RA FRS. A scheme for a commemorative statue on this spot had first been promoted in the late 1830s by George Collison, who in 1840 published an engraving as the frontispiece of his book about cemetery design in Europe and America; and at Abney Park Cemetery in particular. This first cenotaph proposal was never commissioned, and Baily's later design was adopted in 1845
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Abney Park Chapel


were pursuing an Anglican revivalist agenda and favoured particular stylistic approaches and applications. The balanced design worked as planned however, the cemetery attracting Dissenters and Anglicans in roughly equal numbers initially, before it became especially popular with the former. In later years other architects, notably George Gilbert Scott followed Hoskings approach beyond merely copying the past, and began to produce designs in their own personal manner, creating buildings that sometimes mixed elements of the English Gothic style with features other countries and periods; indeed Scott believed a new genre would develop from
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Abney Park


grounds were turned into Abney Park Cemetery, where 200,000 people were buried. Abney Park now serves mainly as a nature reserve. In the early 18th century, Lady Mary Abney laid out Abney Park after inheriting the Manor of Stoke Newington in 1701 from her brother Thomas Gunston. Initially she and her husband Sir Thomas Abney lived there part-time, also living at his residence in Hertfordshire. She began work on the park in those years. After her husband's death in 1722, Lady Mary moved to Abney House full-
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George Collison


around the chapel, and for its rosarium of over one thousand cultivars, varieties and species; together with a potential design for a monument to commemorate the life of Dr Isaac Watts whose association with the Abney estate had been a principal motivation for Collison's commercial cemetery scheme, which appears to an extent to have become a vehicle to finance the preservation of, and public access to, the revered Abney Park. George Collison II was a keen promoter of there being a commemorative statue to Isaac Watts in London, and helped establish
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Abney Park Chapel


any positioning close to the main entrance. The aim was that, once the pine trees that were planted along the Chapel Ride matured, the chapel would gradually be revealed through a sylvan landscape approach drive. The sinuously designed Chapel Ride was therefore lined with Bhutan Pine trees on its south side, contributing an attractive odoriferous all-year effect. Not only could nature be appreciated, but the main entrance (with its Egyptian revival building style) would not be eclipsed. Nonetheless, the chapel was not to be 'hidden'
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Abney Park Cemetery


redesign can be agreed, so as to display the cross to be seen from more directions and as a vantage point and focal point overlooking both directions of the original axis from the chapel spire and its ogee arch along Dr Watts' Walk, and on to Abney House gate; the axis that commemorates the life of the Rev. Dr Isaac Watts. Slightly off this exact axial alignment, is the small Blitz memorial that records civilian deaths, closer to the south entrance (picture right). Though it suffered extensive property damage in
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Mary Abney


of Stoke Newington, together with Abney House and Abney Park. She managed the estate, along with another at Tilford in the parish of Farnham, Surrey. Elizabeth Abney died a spinster aged 78 on 20 August 1782. In her will, she directed that her estates be sold and all proceeds be given to Nonconformist charities. Newington Academy for Girls was a Quaker school established in 1824 in Fleetwood House, the immediate neighbour to Abney House. The students were allowed to use Abney Park. The opening of Abney Park Cemetery gave
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William Hosking


successful example of large-scale use of the Egyptian style in cemetery design. Hosking's skills did not just shine through in his careful planning and detailing of Egyptian-revival temple lodges and frontage; he was also commissioned to design a similarly unique and impressive cemetery chapel. This, the Abney Park Chapel was to be the first non-denominational cemetery chapel in Europe, and quite probably the world (since its "sister" chapel at Mount Auburn was a later addition). While not detracting from the magnificence and originality
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Abney Park Chapel


. However, of equal significance was its layout in plan section; for the chapel comprised just a single internal chamber that would be available to all, regardless of denomination; marking the chapel out in a practical, functional sense, in addition to its external appearance, as the first nondenominational cemetery chapel in Europe. Moreover, its cruciform plan adopted equal arms as in a Greek cross, giving conceptual strength to this concept of equality before God, through its design approach. At a time when cemeteries had to have separate denominational
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Abney Park Chapel


and design received considerable praise, there remained some for whom the completed chapel, not being adherent to strict, or 'high' gothic principles, was deemed to be of 'poor design', whilst for others it was said to be 'pretentious' since it appeared to be the first use of the gothic revival style for an unconsecrated chapel in England at a time when the style was being associated with Anglican and Anglo-Catholic ideas. Hosking's critics emanated principally from groups such as the Cambridge 'Ecclesiologists' who
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Temple Lodges Abney Park


The Abney Park Temple Lodges are entrance lodges to Abney Park Cemetery designed by William Hosking, to Abney Park in the London Borough of Hackney. The lodges are composed mainly of stone building materials and designed in an Egyptian Revival style, which was unusual for the time period of which the lodges were conceptualized. Augustis Pugin Jr. was famously against the non-European design of the lodges despite public fascination of Egyptology at the time. The Abney Park Temple Lodges (1838–40) were designed by William Hosking as entrance lodges to the historic
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Abney Park (band)


Abney Park, a steampunk band based in Seattle, was responsible for initiating the steampunk musical subculture, transforming steampunk from a little known literary genre to a popular movement, and inspiring many later steampunk bands, writers and craftsmen. Their name comes from Abney Park Cemetery in London (UK). Formerly a goth band, Abney Park has transformed their look and sound and has been called the "quintessential" spokespeople of steampunk culture. Abney Park is the creative brainchild of Robert Brown, who formed the band in 1997 and continues
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Isaac Watts


. The Isaac Watts Memorial United Reformed Church was built on the site and named for him. One of the earliest built memorials may also now be lost: a bust to Watts that was commissioned on his death for the London chapel with which he was associated. The chapel was demolished in the late 18th century; remaining parts of the memorial were rescued at the last minute by a wealthy landowner for installation in his chapel near Liverpool. It is unclear whether the bust survives. The stone statue in front of the Abney Park
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Trinity Independent Chapel


Island Gardens in 1974-8. The first minister at Trinity Chapel was the Rev. George Smith (1803-1870), Secretary of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. His pink granite pedestal memorial can be seen today at the non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington. Probably the most noteworthy and influential twentieth century minister was the Rev William Dick. In an area of enormous deprivation, the chapel became, under his inspired leadership, a beacon of hope for the dispossessed and downtrodden. The church's efforts
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Abney Park Chapel


maximum effect. To celebrate its unique message of religious harmony, the chapel was to be a blend of conventional and unique characteristics. William Hosking drafted and redrafted an increasingly elegant solution to this design problem, beginning from a fairly conventional, scaled-down version of an Anglican gothic minster as a convenient starting point. The design of the chapel was to evolve considerably from this initial starting point. It was a somewhat unusual starting point in some respects in that nonconformists, such as the cemetery directors, generally preferred classical designs over
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Abney Park Chapel


set between two octagonal stair turrets, with newell staircases inside, illuminated by simple oculus windows. These led to dramatic viewpoints over Dr Watts' Walk, as well as to an internal viewing platform above an ogee arch with trefoil panels and quatrafoil. the whole effect created an almost theatrical backdrop to the south chapel lawn. As such it almost 'spoke' to the vista to which it was conspicuously aligned – a new axial walk in Dr. Watts' memory being laid out due south. Thus the chapel would be aligned with
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Surrey Chapel, Southwark


available to many religious figures of different denominations; those invited to preach within its walls included both Establishment and Nonconformist figures. Clergymen of the Establishment included Henry Venn) and Rev. Thomas Scott, whilst eminent Dissenting ministers included Dr Chalmers. Martha and James Sherman took over the pastorate in 1935 and their partnership contributed to the chapel's success. Sherman also took a nondenominational approach to burial reform was developed - Abney Park Cemetery. Surrey Chapel - as a result of this 'open door' policy - became a popular London venue for
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Abney Park Cemetery


Abney Park cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London, England. Abney Park in Stoke Newington, in the London Borough of Hackney, is a historic parkland originally laid out in the early 18th century by Lady Mary Abney and Dr. Isaac Watts, and the neighbouring Hartopp family. In 1840 it became a non-denominational garden cemetery, a semi-public park arboretum, and an educational institute, which was widely celebrated as an example of its time. A total of 196,843 burials had taken place there up to
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Abney Park


Abney Park is situated in Stoke Newington, London, England. It is a 13ha (32 acre) park dating from just before 1700, named after Lady Mary Abney and associated with Dr Isaac Watts, who laid out an arboretum. In the early 18th century, the park was accessed via the frontages and gardens of two large mansions—her own manor house (Abney House), and the neighbouring Fleetwood House. Both mansions fronted onto Church Street in what was then a quiet Nonconformist village. In 1840, the
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Abney Park Cemetery


made of dusted wood and sand; its permanent design was not built until two years after Abney Park opened. In England there were already some examples of the use of Egyptian Revival architecture on a small scale, including one example of a small gate installed at a cemetery for Nonconformists near Sheffield in 1836. However, Abney Park Cemetery became the first to employ the style for cemetery buildings, and also the first to introduce it for a complete entrance design. At Abney Park the use of motifs not associated with contemporary faith served
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Abney Park Cemetery


New England cemetery had benefited from a more sylvan setting than that of Abney Park, and a much larger estate. Nonetheless, the ties were evident. The founding directors of the Abney Park project were all Congregationalists, who together with other nonconformists had strong links with their brethren in the New World, to where they had emigrated in search of religious freedom. George Collison, Abney Park Cemetery's company secretary, and the key force behind its radical design, recorded his visit to, and impressions of, Mount Auburn Cemetery,
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Nathaniel Rogers (physician)


Casterton, widow of Henry Burnstead and daughter of William Casterton of Dalston. Amongst his philanthropic works were donations to restore the Pulteney Monument at Westminster Abbey, a stately monument of different coloured marble; and stained glass windows at St. Paul's Cathedral, Acton Parish church, the Abney Park Chapel, and Union Chapel, Islington. One of the Canons at St. Paul's described Rogers' window with considerable praise: "there is a glorious light, as if shining in from the heavens. The two angels are standing as if
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Abney Park Chapel


considered the chapel to contribute 'balance' to the cemetery's entrance ensemble, underpinning the cemetery company's overall philosophy of nondenominational harmony, and reflecting the ecumenical leanings of Isaac Watts who had lived at the parkland estate a century before. Gradually, in the later Victorian period, adoption of 'gothic' designs came to suggest an association with nature, rather than with western Christian architecture. Although such associations primarily emerged in the mid-late Victorian 'arts and crafts' period, it is possible that the association with '
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William Hosking


of the grand entrance design, Hosking's chapel had, likewise, to make its mark as a unique design. As with the novel entrance, Hosking met the challenge both with originality and a surprisingly wide knowledge of architecture. Since he had travelled extensively, and had a strong interest in antiquities, he was able to look well beyond traditional British architectural and gothic-revival sources. Further information about his design can be found in the entry for Abney Park Chapel, which is an early example of Dissenting Gothic. Hosking's
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John Jay (builder)


architectural projects, such as the notable Abney Park Chapel and the Trinity Independent Chapel. John Jay was born in Norfolk, England, in January 1805. By 1826, he had moved to the village of Bethnal Green near the City of London, where he married Esther Wilson (1806–88) at St. Matthew's Church. By the late 1830s, Jay had his offices and workshops in the heart of the City of London at 65 London Wall. These appear to have been inheritance owned either by Jay alone, or else shared
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Abney Park Chapel


gothic revival' designs for chapel architecture, and in all probability with the express intention of weakening the all too frequent association of gothic with 'high church' buildings, which was being advocated rather pompously by Augustus Pugin junior, a distinctly 'low gothic revivalist' style was gradually developed by Hosking and his clients, from a conventional gothic 'mister-like' starting point. Hosking was successful in producing a unique and careful interpretation of the gothic style which was well-suited to the 'low church sentiments' of his
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Abney Park Chapel


The concept of introducing classical elements into a gothic design had previously used in England only on rare occasions, such as for the Little Castle at Bolsover in Derbyshire, built after the Reformation, from 1612. It symbolised a connection with Romanesque-Gothic religious buildings of continental Europe, such as the monastic basilica of St. Procopius, Trebic, Czech Republic, where Jewish and Christian cultures co-existed; now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Hosking's search for a thoughtful and appropriate design for the three rose windows of the chapel
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Abney Park Chapel


towards the more elaborate and supernatural. Its choice would also have suited the horticulturalist and scientist George Loddiges who was on the design team for he saw the 'hand of the Creator' in the beautiful natural designs of botanical species and varieties. His multi-part work, 'The Botanical Cabinet' took a distinctly more religious view of botany than competitor's illustrated works such as Curtis' "Botanical Magazine" and was noted for its piety. Near to the chapel with its splendid botanical rose windows George Loddiges laid out a
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Abney Park Chapel


such an approach. Nor was it many years before the use of the gothic style in its various 'high' and 'low' forms became commonplace in the design of unconsecrated chapels. Even at the time of its completion, counterbalancing the critics were other 'arbiters of taste' who concluded that Hosking's cemetery design worked exceptionally well; notably John Loudon. Loudon had been critical of the catacombs at Kensal Green Cemetery as 'bad taste', and had also found the 'pleasure-ground style' at Norwood cemetery
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Olaudah Equiano


and they ran a Congregational Chapel at Clavering near Saffron Walden in Essex. They moved to London in the middle of the 19th century. They are both buried at the Congregationalists' non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery, in Stoke Newington North London. Equiano died on 31 March 1797 and was buried at Whitefield's Methodist chapel on 6 April. One of his last addresses appears to have been at the Plaisterers' Hall in the City of London, where he drew up his will on 28 May 1796. He moved to John
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Abney Hall


W. N. Pugin and his colleagues, who had created the Gothic Court at the 1851 Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace, to make further substantial alterations. James Watts was responsible for renaming it 'Abney Hall' after, in the words of his son, "Sir Thomas Abney who entertained Sir [actually Rev. Dr.] Isaac Watts for thirty years". In the 1890s Abney Hall was further altered and substantially extended by the architect and interior designer George Faulkner Armitage. In 1912, a valuation and inventory was taken for insurance
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John Pye-Smith


included Robert Halley, future Principal of New College, London; Samuel Dyer, the missionary; and William Johnson Fox of the South Place Chapel, later the South Place Ethical Society. Pye-Smith was minister of the Old Gravel Pit Chapel in Chatham Place, Hackney for nearly as long, from 1811–50. Dr John Pye Smith died in Hackney in 1851 and is buried below a marble chest tomb monument in Dr Watts' Walk, at the Congregationalists' non-denominational garden cemetery in the grounds of Abney Park, Stoke
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Abney Park Chapel


elevation from a raised octagonal base with a decorated rim; and the spire itself is of graceful, elegant simplicity unlike more ornate gothic steeples with buttresses and decorative crockets. These low Gothic characteristics suited Hosking's purpose well, though he added a flourish of colour banding to the steeple – a Victorian fashion. The final result was a chapel, complete with its unornamented yellow stock brick walls, a tall, eye-catching yet gracefully simple steeple, and simple botanically accurate rose windows, created a dramatic but tasteful and purposeful piece
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Abney Park Cemetery


as dissenting academies. Abney House was the first premises in England to be used exclusively as a Wesleyan training college, from c. 1838. This followed use of temporary, shared facilities in Hackney, and prior to the building of their own spacious colleges and grounds, one in the north of England, and a second at Richmond Hill, to which the college at Abney Park moved in 1843. Abney House was then demolished. The governorship of the seminary was held by Rev. John Farrar, Secretary of the Methodist Conference on fourteen
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Mary Abney


Abney House with a series of well-to-do tenants, who paid for various floors and parts of the house. This kept it homely, warm, and constantly lived-in during periods when the family lived in Hertfordshire. Lady Mary granted Watts sole use of a study room, the rooftop turret also called the observatory room, from which he could survey the heavens as well as the whole of Abney Park. His view extended northward of the village, as far as Woodberry Downs. At Abney Park, Lady
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Abney Park


solely to Abney House) included American Larch and Tulip Trees from the New World. The Nonconformists of Stoke Newington had strong connections to colonists in New England. Abney Park was dominated by Abney House. For some time in the early decades of the 19th century, it was the residence of James William Freshfield and his family. In its final years, it was adapted for use as a Wesleyan Methodist training college or seminary (c.1838/9–1843). Rev. John Farrar was the governor of the college. He was elected Secretary of the
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Abney Park Cemetery


volumes covering 1831–48) At first there were many links between Abney Park Cemetery and the LMS but this nonconformist (and in particular Congregationalist) period came to a close in the early 1880s when a strictly commercial general cemetery company was formed and the land at Abney Park was made over to the new enterprise. Though the park had not been formalised in 1840 as a cemetery through Act of Parliament or consecration, and Church faculty law never applied, burial ground use, had, by the 1880s, already come to predominate over the
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Egyptian Revival architecture in the British Isles


lead down to a wall with catacomb-like entrances. The Abney Park cemetery was laid out in the landscaped grounds of Abney House in Stoke Newington, which had been the home of Lady Abney, a leading early 18th century Non-conformist. One of the "Magnificent Seven" parkland cemeteries created in the early Victorian period, albeit set out in an entirely different way to the others and with somewhat wider purposes, Abney Park features an entrance designed by William Hosking FSA in collaboration with Joseph Bonomi the Younger and the cemetery
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Mary Abney


split their lives between the villages of Cheshunt and their second home in Stoke Newington. Upon title passing to Lady Mary and Sir Thomas Abney, she began to complete her late brother's new manor house at Abney Park; it was later known as 'Abney House.' She had it done to suit her taste and ideas. As Abney House was closer to London than Theobalds, the Abneys frequently stayed there with their family. Soon the household included long-term house-guest Dr Isaac Watts. The family also shared
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Robert Brown (musician)


the University of London and lived near Abney Park Cemetery. After leaving the University of London, Brown relocated to Seattle at the height of the Grunge movement, where he started the dark electronica band "October 27th", and later formed "the EaTen" with guitarist Robert Hazelton (now with the "Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society"). Soon after, they changed the band's name from the EaTen to Abney Park, after the London cemetery. Brown is the principal songwriter in Abney Park. In addition to this,
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Abney Park Cemetery


Abney Park Cemetery was partially modelled. By contrast, figures who appreciated the composition complimented Hosking and Bonomi on their scholarly frontage design; an arbiter of design taste, John Loudon, described it as a "judicious combination of two lodges with gates between". Abney Park has a claim to be the earliest complete design for a permanent "Egyptian Revival" entranceway at a cemetery anywhere in the world. The gateway at Mount Auburn Cemetery, from which it took its inspiration, was at that time still a temporary structure, being
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Abney Park Cemetery


the trees and shrubs and of their botanical labels, was impaired. Today Loddiges' work is of unparalleled significance to landscape design, being recognised as of European importance. Abney Park was the first London cemetery to be invited to join the Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe (ASCE) and it is the only surviving example of an English landscape designed by George Loddiges FLS FZS. Such an elaborate planting scheme for a park cemetery may also be a reflection of the symbolic importance the founding directors attached to the land that formed Abney
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Abney Park Cemetery


the year 2000. It is a Local Nature Reserve. The official address of Abney Park is Stoke Newington High Street, N16. The main gate is at the junction of this street and Rectory Road, with a smaller gate on Stoke Newington Church Street. The park lies within the London Borough of Hackney. The cemetery is named after Sir Thomas Abney, who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1700–01. The manor of Stoke Newington belonged to him in the early 18th century and his town house, built in 1676,
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Abney Park Cemetery


stood on the site of the present cemetery until its demolition in the 1830s. In 1840, Abney Park opened as a model garden cemetery, a pioneering non-denominational place of rest. Its approach was based on the Congregational church's role in the London Missionary Society (LMS), whose fundamental principle was to develop a wholly non-denominational exemplar. It also drew on American burial ideas, specifically Mount Auburn in Massachusetts. Details of the Abney Park Cemetery Company can be found in the diaries of William Copeland Astbury (
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Abney Park Cemetery


monumental cemetery of that name in Pisa, Italy – "campo santo" translates as "sacred field" or "saints' abode" ) in respect of its late 17th- and 18th-century burials, Abney Park took on the mantle during the Victorian period in the writings of E. Paxton Hood for the Religious Tract Society. Though it primarily attracted Congregational, Methodist and Salvation Army nonconformists, rather than certain other nonconformists such as Quakers, or non-Protestant nonconformists such as Catholics or Jewish people, Abney Park Cemetery more than
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Abney Park Cemetery


cemetery design and a more transcendental view of nature as proposed by Emerson, and Thoreau in New England. Slowly, however, time has healed this difference and the landscape at Abney Park has grown closer to its New World cousin. Mature trees and woodland now adorn Abney Park, completing its transformation into a woodland cemetery. This has been so profound a change that by the early 1990s the cemetery was acknowledged to be the largest woodland ecosystem in North London so close to the centre of the City of London, and became designated
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Lost Horizons (Abney Park album)


Lost Horizons is the 8th studio album by Abney Park, subtitled "The Continuing Adventures of Abney Park". It is the band's first Steampunk themed album. Lead singer and songwriter Robert Brown wanted to pay homage to the cover of the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton. He even replicated the chips and scratches of his own copy. "Sleep Isabella" was used in a scene in the HBO series "True Blood", Season 5 Episode 4. "She" is based on Robert's wife Kristina Erickson
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Baron Donington


Baron Donington, of Donington Park in the County of Leicester, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1880 for Charles Frederick Abney-Hastings. Born Charles Frederick Clifton, he was the widower of Edith Mary Abney-Hastings, 10th Countess of Loudoun. He and his wife had in 1859 assumed by Royal licence the surname of Abney-Hastings on succeeding to the Abney-Hastings estates after the death of his wife's kinsman Sir Charles Abney-Hastings, 2nd Baronet in 1858 (
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Abney Hall


the print works and was the home of a mayor of Stockport, Alfred Orell, who died in the year of its completion. Abney was sold to James Watts (later Sir James Watts) who rebuilt the upper storey and added two short wings in the early 1850s. The architects for the alterations were Travis and Magnall, the Manchester firm that designed the Watts Warehouse on Portland Street in Manchester. However, hardly was the work by Travis and Magnall complete, when James Watts was inspired to engage the architect and designer A.
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Abney Park Cemetery


Cemetery. Here too is the Welsh MP Henry Richard, a mid-19th-century secretary of the Peace Society, instrumental in encouraging the first university in Wales at Aberystwyth along with its founder Sir Hugh Owen, whose own memorial is to the east of the Abney Park Cedar Circle. Also buried here is Betsi Cadwaladr, a Welsh nurse who worked in the Crimea with Florence Nightingale. The Peace Society is well represented at Abney Park; two of its other 19th-century secretaries, Rev. Nun Morgan Harry and Rev. John Jefferson are
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Abney Park (band)


was released on October 15, 2010. Now sometimes called the "quintessential" steampunk band, Abney Park has been featured in major news media and interviewed by several genre magazines and websites, and has been highlighted on MTV and G4TV as primary examples of the steampunk musical scene. Abney Park has performed at numerous festivals. It was the featured band at the first Steamcon in 2009 and has appeared at Steamcon numerous times since. They have appeared three times at World Steam Expo, five times at Dragon*Con; also WGW, Utah
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St. Henry's Chapel


as a national heritage. The octagon-shaped brick chapel was built in 1850's by the drawings of architect Pehr Johan Gylich and the wooden building was placed inside. The chapel was opened on 18 June 1857, at the 700th anniversary of Christianisation of Finland. The park was designed by architect Georg Theodor von Chiewitz. In 2002, the bust of St. Henry was revealed at the park. It is a work of Finnish sculptor Emil Cedercreutz (1879–1949). Foundations of the brick chapel are slightly damaged during the decades and
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Temple Lodges Abney Park


18th century parkland associated with Isaac Watts and Lady Mary Abney. The buildings were added to the parkland estate on its becoming laid out as the Congregationalists' novel non-denominational garden cemetery, arboretum and educational institution. Rather than the usual forbidding high walls of contemporary cemetery design, William Hosking was briefed to work up a visually prominent design that would occupy a considerable frontage expanse. This provided open, inviting, views into the park, for appreciation of its botanical richness and landscape beauty since the Abney Park Cemetery project was,
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Temple Lodges Abney Park


is said to have produced "Egyptial Revival" entrance features more perfectly, and on a more complete scale, than at Mount Auburn Cemetery where the concept had originated. Importantly, Mount Auburn Cemetery, from which Abney Park's client representative, George Collison took much of his inspiration, still at that time had only a temporary Egyptial Revival structure (made of dusted wood and sand). Its permanent "Egyptian Revival" structure was not built until two years after the Temple Lodges at Abney Park were completed, more optimistically,
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Abney Park Cemetery


the dead were Jewish and some were refugees from the Nazis. Of two known unexploded World War II bombs remaining in Stoke Newington, one is located somewhere in Abney Park. As may have been implied already, Abney Park Cemetery was the only garden cemetery of its era to be influenced by New World cemetery design ideas due to the strong links between its founders and New England; in particular Boston. The Stoke Newington cemetery reflects the design style adopted for Mount Auburn, for example in its use of an Egyptian Revival entrance and
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Abney Park Cemetery


arboretum. However, though its "model" lay in the New World, it drew on different romantic landscape associations. Whereas Mount Auburn Cemetery celebrated the 'Sweet Auburn' of poetry, in particular the nature and woodland associated with the Auburn village area, it was the "romance" of religious and historical associations that primarily attracted the founders of London's first nondenominational garden cemetery, to Lady Mary Abney's estate which had served as an inspiration to the celebrated Isaac Watts. Nonetheless, on its opening, Abney Park was
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Thorndon Park Chapel


Thorndon Park Chapel (The Petre Chapel) is a former Roman Catholic private chapel situated in Thorndon Park, near the grounds of Thorndon Hall near Ingrave, Essex, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Historic Chapels Trust. The chapel was built as a private chantry chapel and mausoleum for the Roman Catholic Petre family who lived in Thorndon Hall. It was built in about 1850, and dedicated in 1857. The architect
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Abney Park Cemetery


occasions and twice its elected President. Next to Abney House on Church Street was Fleetwood House, used as the base for Newington Academy for Girls, which was founded in 1824 by, among others, the Quaker scientist and abolitionist William Allen and run in a most enlightened and imaginative way by Susanna Corder, who later emigrated for a while to Boston and emerged as a talented biographer. It lost exclusive use of attractive grounds in the eastern part of Abney Park on formation of the cemetery, leaving only the school house and a
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Fulda Cathedral


conventual buildings of the abbey, constructed between 1771 and 1778, now the Theological Department of the University of Fulda. Nearby is the modern chapel of the Catholic seminary, which was built 1966-1968 by the architect Sep Ruf. South of the monastery is the deanery and the dean's garden, where a lapidarium is now located. In part of the deanery buildings is the cathedral museum. The adjoining cathedral museum contains numerous liturgical vestments and vessels, including the "Silver Altar", dating from the 18th century, which
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Edward Stallybrass


) Stallybrass returned to England in 1841 and left the LMS. After his return, Stallybrass was headmaster of the Boys' Mission School, Walthamstow, and pastor at Hampden Chapel, Hackney. From 1858 to 1870 he was a pastor at Burnham, Norfolk. He died on 25 July 1884 in Kent, and is buried in Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington. Translating scripture into the local languages was an important task for the LMS missionaries. From 1836 to 1840, they worked on translating scripture and publishing it at a mission
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Abney Park Chapel


of the grounds and its rosarium, besides offering the beauty of simplicity and a compliment to the Creator; a design of considerable thoughtfulness as came to typify William Hosking's learned and historical approach to architecture. For the pointed gothic windows, grouped in threes, no tracery was used, also representing careful thinking about simplicity of design. For the steeple, William Hosking drew on the fourteenth century Bloxham church in Oxfordshire for design inspiration. Its steeple, the tallest in the county, is octagonal in cross-section and gains additional
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The Adventures of Abney & Teal


two animated rag dolls named Abney and Teal who live on an island in a lake in a park in a city. Abney lives in a hut at the base of a tree. Teal sleeps in the branches of the tree, with her only possessions a blanket and an umbrella. Abney & Teal share their environment with several friends: From time to time Neep's 'friends and relations' come to visit. They look much like Neep but are different colours and have varying other features. For example, Zeep has a
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Andrew Reed (minister)


Reed died in Hackney, London, and was buried in Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington, north-east London. His memorial stands at Abney House Corner, towards the south end of this Congregationalists' non-denominational cemetery. It is a tall, imposing obelisk in polished red granite situated close to the later memorial to one of his sons, Sir Charles Reed (Hackney's first MP and a Trustee Director of Abney Park Cemetery). A grand Celtic cross in memory of his grandson Talbot Baines Reed stands nearby.
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Mary Abney


as in Great Britain. Following Watts' death in 1748, Lady Mary Abney had a memorial to him constructed at Bunhill Fields, which she co-financed with neighbor Sir John Hartopp. Following Mary Abney's death in 1750 at the age of 73, she was buried near her brother Thomas Gunston, beneath the chancel of Old Stoke Newington Church. (This is now called St Mary's Old Church and it overlooks today's Clissold Park.) Her daughter, Elizabeth Abney (c1704-1782), inherited The Manor
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Abney Hall


be found in her books. Vanessa Wagstaff writes, "Abney became Agatha's greatest inspiration for country-house life, with all the servants and grandeur which have been woven into her plots. The descriptions of the fictional Styles, Chimneys, Stoneygates and the other houses in her stories are mostly Abney in various forms." Abney Hall has had numerous famous visitors, including: The park is a Local Nature Reserve. It was originally part of the Mersey flood plain, and much of the land is still very damp.
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James Sherman (minister)


of the Baptist Missionary Society, a body that worked closely with the LMS, and practiced congregational principles of church governance. Shortly before 1840, James Sherman became a founding trustee and director of the Congregationalist's new non-denominational enterprise - Abney Park Cemetery. All parts of the grounds were to be open for burial to everyone, regardless of denomination, without "invidious dividing lines". It became the first garden cemetery in Europe to be wholly non-denominational in this respect whilst also having just one chapel, to be
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Abney Park Cemetery


Orator" is buried here with his wife's family. A Victoria Cross recipient from the Indian Mutiny, Private John Freeman, is buried here. World record holder in motor-paced cycling Tommy Hall. In a different way, Susanna Bostock is remembered, largely due to the dominance of her life-sized marble lion alongside a path close to the chapel. Along with the Wombwells, the Bostocks were mainly responsible for bringing Asian and African animals to the attention of the Victorian public. For part of the year giraffes lived
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William Ellis (missionary)


and the history and geography of the island – "Madagascar Revisited", 1867, and "Martyr Church of Madagascar", 1870. In 1872 Ellis caught a cold while on a train journey and died on 9 June 1872. Sarah Ellis died seven days later on 16 June. They had been married for 35 years. Ellis is buried in a venerated spot in the Congregationalists' non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery in London, near where Isaac Watts once lived. His intricately carved hip tomb is aligned with its chapel.
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Joanna Vassa


moved back to London and resided at 21 Benyan Terrace, Buckingham Road, in Hackney; but there is no record of Henry living with her. She died of uterine disease, possibly brought on by fibroids, on 10 March 1857, aged 61. She was buried on 16 March in Abney Park Cemetery, close to the memorial statue to Isaac Watts on the axial walk from the chapel to Stoke Newington Church Street. Her husband Henry survived her for twenty years, and was buried with her on 12 February 1878. It
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Abney Park Chapel


away in the centre of the estate, even as the trees lining its approach matured. Collison and Hosking sought a prominent and unapologetic landmark that would be seen from a good distance beyond the cemetery well into the future. To achieve this, whilst only being slowly revealed on its approach from the main entrance, considerable height was required. William Hosking considered this to be best suited to a steeple – it would need to be much higher than any other in the vicinity, surpassing that of the local parish church, to produce
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Alexander Fletcher (minister)


, 30 September 1860. He was married and a father. A tribute to his memory was given by fellow Scot, John McFarland, in Finsbury Chapel on 14 October. In his memory his congregation commissioned a soaring cross of polished granite that they placed at his gravesite. It featured an unusual, pierced octagonal cross, at the top. The mason of this expensive monument was W. H. Burke of Newman Street, Marylebone c. 1861. The cross still stands at Fletcher's grave at Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London
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Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Carlett Park


The Chapel of the Good Shepherd, Carlett Park is in Eastham, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The chapel was built in the grounds of the mansion in Carlett Park in 1884–85 to a design by the Chester architect John Douglas. The chapel was commissioned by the owner of the mansion, Revd W. E. Torr, who was a canon of Chester Cathedral and the vicar of Eastham. The chapel is built in red sandstone. It has bands
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Park Congregational Chapel, Llanelli


Park Congregational Chapel is a Congregational chapel in the town of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It was built in 1864 and is located at the junction between Murray Street and Inkerman Street. It was designated as a Grade II listed building on 3 December 1992. Park Congregational Chapel was erected at a time when Llanelli had become a significant regional producer of tinplate and steel and the population was growing strongly and needed more buildings in which to worship. The architects were Lander and Bedells of London, and the chapel was built between 1864
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