Kensal Green Cemetery
A nationally important place of remembrance for Londoners is at risk of irreversible harm.
We ask the Mayor of London to step in now to protect Kensal Green Cemetery — a place of remembrance, peace, and profound human meaning — from irreversible harm caused by development proposals at Kensal Canalside.
Still in daily use for burials, cremations and memorial visits, Kensal Green Cemetery is a place of quiet reflection and remembrance, where generations of Londoners have laid their loved ones to rest. It is a rare green refuge in a dense urban area, valued by families, visitors and local communities. It is also a Grade I listed historic landscape of national significance.
The proposed developments would significantly overshadow the cemetery with a wall of 98m tower blocks, damage its setting, tranquility, and fragile ecology, and permanently alter its character. Added to that, developers want to build a commuter route right through the middle of the cemetery! Historic England has warned that the resulting harm will be “widespread” and “profound”. This is not a marginal impact or a matter of taste. It is a clear and lasting harm to one of London’s most important historic burial grounds. Once this setting is damaged, it cannot be restored.
This threat sits within a wider pattern of serious concerns about the scheme, including:
- unsafe emergency vehicle access
- excessive scale beyond the site’s capacity
- inadequate provision of genuinely affordable housing
- unresolved contamination and unexploded ordnance risks
- poor transport connectivity and traffic impacts
- insufficient green space and public health concerns
Taken together, these failures point to a scheme that does not represent good growth and does not meet London’s strategic planning objectives as a whole.
We therefore urge the Mayor to use his powers to intervene — including calling in or directing refusal of the application — to prevent irreversible harm and to ensure that development here respects human dignity, heritage, safety, and community wellbeing.
Protect Kensal Green Cemetery and London’s history — for the families who visit today, for the wider city that values it, and for future generations.
Why Kensal Green Cemetery Matters
Kensal Green Cemetery was established in 1833 as the first of London’s great Victorian garden cemeteries. It is one of the 'Magnificent Seven' cemeteries, created to provide dignified burial, green space, and places of reflection for a growing city.
Now a Grade I listed historic landscape, the cemetery reflects London’s religious, cultural and social diversity. It contains over 250,000 burials and is both a site of national heritage and a living place of remembrance, visited daily by families, mourners, and local residents.
Those buried here include both ordinary Londoners and figures of national significance — engineers, writers, scientists, reformers, and public figures who helped shape modern Britain — among them Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Babbage, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Anthony Trollope— alongside countless ordinary Londoners whose families continue to visit and care for their graves.
The cemetery also holds powerful social history, including the memorial to Kelso Cochrane, whose 1959 murder became a defining moment in Britain’s struggle against racism and helped galvanise the cultural resistance and community organising that gave rise to the Notting Hill Carnival.
Beyond its cultural and historic importance, the cemetery functions as a vital urban micro-habitat: its mature trees, undisturbed ground, and low levels of artificial lighting support birds, bats, insects and other wildlife that can no longer survive elsewhere in the surrounding city.
Kensal Green Cemetery was designed as a place of peace, greenery and contemplation. Its open character, setting and sense of calm are central to its meaning. Once these qualities are lost, they cannot be recreated.
IF YOU SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN SIGN THE PETITION HERE
In an update on the petition's progress the Campaign says:
Our hope is simple: that the Mayor of London steps in to overturn RBKC’s decision.
But we face powerful interests — so we must be ready to present our strongest possible case.
Contamination is one of the most serious concerns. When the former gasworks site is excavated, toxic gas and dust will be released. These pollutants do not remain contained to the site — they can spread through air and water, affecting residents and the fragile ecology of Kensal Green Cemetery. The concerns go even further: insufficient affordable housing, inadequate emergency access, lack of social infrastructure, and widespread gridlock.
To be able to act quickly and effectively, we have launched a Crowd Justice campaign to raise £20,000 to secure expert legal counsel and ensure we properly present our case to the Mayor of London.
👉 Please help with a small donation to legal funds.
There are thousands of pages of planning and environmental documents to review, and extensive legal arguments to prepare. Preparing properly takes expertise. And expertise costs money.
If the Mayor does not take positive action, we may need to pursue a full Judicial Review. That would require further funding. But right now, our focus is ensuring we are ready — and that our community is not priced out of defending itself.
We are not asking for large donations. If we all give just £5 or £10, we will be in a strong position to stand up for our neighbourhood and our heritage.
Every little truly helps! If you can, please make a small contribution — and please share the link with someone else who cares.
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