The Chandos Mausoleum is an early 18th-century English Baroque building by James Gibbs in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The mausoleum is attached to the north side of the church of St Lawrence Whitchurch in the London Borough of Harrow, England. [1] The church including the mausoleum is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. [2]
The mausoleum was intended as the final resting place of the Dukes of Chandos. The church and mausoleum are sited at the southeast corner of Canons Park which was an estate acquired by James Brydges, later 1st Duke of Chandos. Brydges rebuilt the house on the estate, Cannons, employing Gibbs as one of his architects. Brydges also rebuilt the church, which was a medieval building, to a design by John James. The church reopened in 1716, and originally had a chapel for family monuments. The mausoleum was added in 1735, the year Brydges' second wife died.
Like the church itself, the interior of the mausoleum is decorated with wall-paintings which feature trompe-l'œil effects. The ceiling is painted with a miniature copy of the dome of the Pantheon, Rome. The style is Rococo and generally playful, although skulls are depicted. The artist for the mausoleum was Gaetano Brunetti. [3] Some sources say Francesco Sleter was also involved. [4]
The mausoleum contains memorials to members of the Chandos family. [5] On the west wall is a sculptured monument to the 1st Duke which originally stood in the church. It was commissioned from Grinling Gibbons, although Pevsner is sceptical about the extent to which it was executed by Gibbons rather than his workshop. The Duke is shown in a wig dressed as a Roman citizen. This figure is flanked by plain pilasters outside which are the kneeling figures of two of his wives, Mary Lake and Cassandra Willoughby.
There are two monuments on the south wall. One is a black sarcophagus against a white pyramid to the memory of Lady Mary Bruce, the first wife of the future 2nd Duke of Chandos, who died in 1738. [6] It was designed by Sir Henry Cheere. The other is a white sarcophagus to Margaret, the first wife of the future 3rd Duke of Chandos, who died in 1760. [1] [2]
The church is an active Anglican parish church, [7] and the mausoleum is vested in the Churches Conservation Trust. [3] The mausoleum is open on Sundays.
Edgware is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with some parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow. Edgware is centred 9.5 miles (15.3 km) north-northwest of Charing Cross and has its own commercial centre. Edgware has a generally suburban character, typical of the rural-urban fringe. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex directly east of the ancient Watling Street, and gives its name to the present day Edgware Road that runs from central London towards the town. The community benefits from some elevated woodland on a high ridge marking the Hertfordshire border of gravel and sand.
Stanmore is part of the London Borough of Harrow in Greater London. It is centred 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Charing Cross, lies on the outskirts of the London urban area and includes Stanmore Hill, one of the highest points of London, at 152 metres (499 ft) high. The district, which developed from the ancient Middlesex parishes of Great and Little Stanmore, lies immediately west of Roman Watling Street and forms the eastern part of the modern London Borough of Harrow.
The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough in northwest London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It borders four other London boroughs – Barnet to the east of ancient Watling Street, Brent to the southeast, Ealing to the south and Hillingdon to the west – plus the Hertfordshire districts of Three Rivers and Hertsmere to the north. The local authority is Harrow London Borough Council. The London borough was formed in 1965, based on boundaries that had been established in 1934. The borough is made up of three towns: Harrow, Pinner and Stanmore, but also includes western parts of Edgware.
Belmont is a residential area of the London Borough of Harrow, located between Stanmore, Kenton, Wealdstone and Queensbury.
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, was an English landowner and politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1698 until 1714, when he succeeded to the peerage as Baron Chandos, and vacated his seat in the House of Commons to sit in the House of Lords. He was subsequently created Earl of Carnarvon, and then Duke of Chandos in 1719.
James Gibbs was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Aberdeen, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England. He is an important figure whose work spanned the transition between English Baroque architecture and Georgian architecture heavily influenced by Andrea Palladio. Among his most important works are St Martin-in-the-Fields, the cylindrical, domed Radcliffe Camera at Oxford University, and the Senate House at Cambridge University.
Canons Park is a public park and the name of its surrounding residential area, in the Edgware district of the London Borough of Harrow, north west London. Canons Park was a country estate which partially survives today as a public park. St. Lawrence's Church, the parish church of Little Stanmore, and the accompanying Chandos Mausoleum are located here.
The year 1735 in architecture involved some significant events.
Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos was an English historian, travel writer and artist. She spent more than a quarter-century overseeing the restoration of the gardens and rebuilding of the family mansion at Wollaton Hall, now in Nottingham.
Bentley Priory is an eighteenth to nineteenth century stately home and deer park in Stanmore on the northern edge of the Greater London area in the London Borough of Harrow.
Henry Wylde was an English conductor, composer, teacher and music critic.
James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos PC, styled Viscount Wilton from birth until 1744 and Marquess of Carnarvon from 1744 to 1771, was a British peer and politician.
Cannons was a stately home in Little Stanmore, Middlesex, England. It was built by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, between 1713 and 1724 at a cost of £200,000, replacing an earlier house on the site. Chandos' house was razed in 1747 and its contents dispersed.
Little Stanmore was an ancient parish of Middlesex which is today the residential area of Canons Park in the London Borough of Harrow, England. The parish included the western part of the town of Edgware.
Edward Shepherd was a prominent London-based English architect and developer in the Georgian period.
George Frideric Handel was the house composer at Cannons from August 1717 until February 1719. The Chandos Anthems and other important works by Handel were conceived, written or first performed at Cannons.
Stanmore Country Park is a 30.7-hectare (76-acre) public park, Local Nature Reserve and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation in Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow. It is owned and managed by Harrow London Borough Council.
Chandos Jubilate, HWV246, is a common name for a choral composition by George Frideric Handel. It was published as the first of the Chandos Anthems, and is known also as Chandos Anthem No. 1 and as Jubilate in D Major. A setting of Psalm 100, "O, be joyful in the Lord", it is the first in a series of church anthems that Handel composed between 1717 and 1718, when he was composer in residence to James Brydges, later 1st Duke of Chandos. The anthem was probably first performed at St. Lawrence's church, Whitchurch, near Brydges' country house. The work is written for a small ensemble of instrumentalists, solo singers and choir, and is approximately twenty minutes in length.
St. Lawrence, Whitchurch, is a Church of England parish church in Little Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow, England. The building is Grade I listed. It retains a stone tower dating from ca. 1360, but the main body of the building was constructed in the 18th century in Baroque style.
Chandos Anthems, HWV 246–256, is the common name of a set of anthems written by George Frideric Handel. These sacred choral compositions number eleven; a twelfth of disputed authorship is not considered here. The texts are psalms and combined psalm verses in English. Handel wrote the anthems as composer in residence at Cannons, the court of James Brydges, who became the First Duke of Chandos in 1719. His chapel was not yet finished, and services were therefore held at St Lawrence in Whitchurch. The scoring is intimate, in keeping with the possibilities there. Some of the anthems rely on earlier works, and some were later revised for other purposes.