- Location:
- Coventry
- Services:
- Budget:
- £2.7m
- Client:
- Coventry City Council
- Awards:
- Civic Trust AABC Conservation Awards Regional Finalist
- Sector:
- Landscape Architecture
Conservation
Culture & Leisure
Our Architecture, Heritage and Landscape teams have restored London Road Cemetery, Coventry, a Grade I Listed Arboretum Cemetery originally designed by Joseph Paxton in 1845.
The site is one of the top 5 historic cemeteries in the UK and resides in the landscape of a former sandstone quarry, combining burial sites with a parkland setting.
Our team worked to repair and restore the original architecture and landscape design to facilitate its use as a public park, improving the path network, horticultural features and designed views and vistas so that it can continue to function as the city park it was originally intended to be.
In addition to restoring the landscape to Paxton’s original design the project also includes work to significant architectural features within the Cemetery. These include the Grade II Listed Anglican Chapel, Promenade Wall and Paxton Memorial; as well as the Jewish Ohel. Work is also being carried out to restore 21 monuments within the Cemetery of some of the most significant people of Coventry.
Works within the Anglican Chapel involve the installation of contemporary toilet and kitchenette facilities to allow the building to become more versatile in its use. New lighting and heating is also installed, as well as a number of significant repairs being carried out to the leaded and rose glazed windows, internal and external masonry, and the replacement of the cap stone to the tower roof.
Restoration to the Promenade Wall involves significant sections of rebuilding to reinstate lost historical features and repair structural damage. This work also opens up the former mortuary chapel beneath, providing an interpretation and exhibition space and reinstates the carriageway entrance to the Cemetery from London Road and linking it with the adjacent Charterhouse.
The team received a National Heritage Lottery Fund grant to support the £2.7million project.
