Paxton Memorial - Coventry, UK
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N 52° 24.105 W 001° 29.998
30U E 602050 N 5806782
This 12 meter high Portland stone memorial is dedicated to Joseph Paxton and sits at the old entrance to the London Road Cemetery. Paxton designed the cemetery and the Crystal Palace.
Waymark Code: WM8HCZ
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/04/2010
Views: 1
This stone memorial has shafts of pink granite and is topped with an ironwork cross.
The following is an extract fromt: Public Sculpture of Warwickshire, Coventry & Solihull by G.T. Noszlopy:-
Goddard's grand design is purely architectural and does not feature a portrait or any figurative element. This Gothic Revival memorial is formed by a tall Portland stone column, with shafts in pink granite attached by annulets that support a double tier of niches with crocketed gables on small shafts. The whole is topped with an iron cross. The capitals and sculptural decoration are also of Portland stone and have the crispness and precision that characterises this neo-Gothic style and generally medievalising period.
Sir Joseph Paxton (d.i865) started his career as a landscape gardener and architect. In 1845, he was commissioned by the Corporation to transform the London Road cemetery from a disused stone quarry. He sought to produce something which had 'more of the air of a gentleman's park than of a city of the dead'.1 He was twice knighted, by the Emperor of Russia at Chatsworth, and by Queen Victoria, for his work planning the Great Exhibition of 1851. He was Coventry's MP for ten years.
As Paxton is not buried here, the memorial monument is intended to be commemorative rather than funerary, a fact made obvious by its siting opposite the original main entrance, which is clearly visible from the main road. It was erected within five years of his death by a committee formed for the purpose under the chairmanship of John Gulson, which held a competition to choose a design for the memorial.
There was debate in the local press as to whether Paxton deserved a memorial, in the light of the fact that Sir Thomas White had benefited the city more in his representation of Coventry
Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link]
Location: London Road Cemetery, Coventry
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