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Site on English Heritage Register of Historic Parks and Gardens, for Register Entry see http://list.english-heritage.org.uk

This was the first publicly owned cemetery in London to be established after the 1852 Metropolitan Interment Act when the St Pancras Burial Board bought over 35 hectares of Horse Shoe Farm on Finchley Common. The only remnants of the original Gothic ragstone buildings by John Barnett and William Birch are a northern pair of gatehouses with railings and the Anglican chapel with central spire erected at the expense of the parishes of St Pancras and St Mary Islington in 1853. A further c.38 hectares of land were added in 1877 for Islington. The chapel served both parishes until 1896 when the Anglican Chapel was built by St Mary Islington, an Arts and Crafts Gothic building in brick and stone with a timber cupola, designed by Forsyth and Maule. The Crematorium was built in 1937, designed by Albert Freeman.

The large rambling site is bisected by many avenues, described in the late C19th as a 'beautiful park-like ground, with its splendid trees of ever varying tints' which include limes, cedars, monkey puzzles and cypress trees. Many areas of the cemetery are no longer in regular use and are now neglected and overgrown. There are many fine monuments, including the Mond Mausoleum for the industrial chemist Ludwig Mond, Lord Melchett who bequeathed paintings by Italian old masters to the National Gallery (d.1909), based on the Temple of Nemesis Rhamnus, it is an enormous grey granite and stone Ionic temple, superbly sited on a tree lined slope, designed by Darcy Braddell. South of the Islington Chapel is a monument in the form of a classical temple for Henry Carter (d.1876). Two monuments in Mausoleum Road commemorate the Penfold Family and the Davey Family (1882), a gothic structure with a steep roof of stone slabs. The cemetery has C19th railings and gatepiers.

Sources consulted:

Hugh Meller & Brian Parsons, 'London Cemeteries, An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer', 4th edition (The History Press, 2008); Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 4: North (Penguin, 1998); Jan Hewlett, Ian Yarham, David Curson, 'Nature Conservation in Barnet', London Ecology Unit, 1997; John Richardson, 'A History of Camden. Hampstead, Holborn and St Pancras' (Historical Publications Ltd, 1999)

Grid ref:	TQ269903
Size in hectares:	74
On EH National Register :	Yes
EH grade :	Grade II*
Site on EH Heritage at Risk list:
Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965:	No
Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931:	No
The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.
On Local List:
In Conservation Area:	No
Conservation Area name:
Tree Preservation Order:	Not known
Nature Conservation Area:	Yes - Borough Importance II
Green Belt:	No
Metropolitan Open Land:	Yes
Special Policy Area:	No
Other LA designation: