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

The West of London and Westminster Cemetery Company, founded in 1836, purchased the site for its new cemetery, previously used for brick-making activities, from Lord Kensington and the Equitable Gas Company. Benjamin Baud won the competition to design the new cemetery in 1838; he had previously designed buildings in medieval style and had assisted on improvements to Windsor Castle. However his grand scheme for Brompton Cemetery was a classical conception and work on the cemetery proceeded in 1839 which opened in 1840, its first burial of Mrs C Boyle Shaw marked by a slab designed by Baud. The Company engaged landscape gardener Isaac Finnemore to lay out the grounds, with advice from J C Loudon on planting and plants supplied by Messrs Veitch. The Cemetery Company found themselves in financial difficulties, Baud's designs were altered, corners cut in the building works and Finnemore resigned. By 1844 defects emerged in the buildings resulting in Baud's sacking. Baud had intended the cemetery to be walled around and with catacombs incorporated in the western wall. It was to have two entrances, a water-gate for canal-borne coffins from the Kensington Canal (now the route of the District line), but only the main entrance with triumphal arch was built. The building work was completed by 1847, comprising a chapel with related 'great circle' of arcades and catacombs on the 'great circle' and along the west wall, of which the six catacombs on the 'great circle' survive, with wide paved steps leading down to entrance doors. Baud's design had a central avenue running north-west / south-east from the entrance on Old Brompton Road.

In 1850 the Metropolitan Interments Act was passed which, although it was later repealed, enabled the Board of Health to purchase Brompton Cemetery for a fraction of the price asked by the Company. By 1889 Mrs Basil Holmes records that it contained 155,000 bodies and it is now closed to burials except in family tombs. The earliest tombs are those south of the chapel, with mausoleums by the main axial path and at ronds points. There are numerous graves for soldiers due to its proximity to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, which acquired a plot at Brompton Cemetery when the Old Burial Ground at the Royal Hospital (q.v.) closed to burials in 1855.

Among those buried here are the Egyptologist Joseph Bonomi; Thomas Cundy III who designed parts of Belgravia as architect and surveyor to the Duke of Westminster; Frederick Leyland (d. 1892), ship-owner and patron of the Pre-Raphaelites whose tomb is 'a unique example of Arts and Crafts funerary design' (Meller); and Emmeline Pankhurst (d.1928), the suffragette leader. There is notable and dominant planting of lime trees along the north-west and south-east avenues, with scattered mature weeping silver lime, holly, Holm oak, cedar of Lebanon and yew.

Sources consulted:

Hugh Meller & Brian Parsons, 'London Cemeteries, An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer', 4th edition (The History Press, 2008). See EH Register: LCC Survey of London, XLI, 1983, pp246-52; JS Curl 'A Celebration of Death', 1980, pp240-43.

Grid ref:	TQ258776
Size in hectares:	16
On EH National Register :	Yes
EH grade :	Grade I
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:	Yes
Conservation Area name:	Brompton Cemetery
Tree Preservation Order:	No
Nature Conservation Area:	Yes - Borough Importance I
Green Belt:	No
Metropolitan Open Land:	Yes
Special Policy Area:	No
Other LA designation:	Strategic View corridor (south)