Kensal Green: St Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery: A mortuary chapel

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 26 Sep 2010

This ornate little structure is the Mortuary Chapel of Conde de Bayona, Marques de Misa. Searching through currently available Google books and online UK genealogical databases, the photographer thinks that Conde de Bayona, Marques de Misa, died on 8 January 1904, and his death at the age of 88 was recorded in the Paddington Registration District. The chapel is a Grade II Listed Building and the English Heritage site describes it thus: "Freestanding mausoleum. Later 19th century. Gothic. Whitewashed stone. Tall pitched fishscale tiled roof. Pointed arched entrance with moulded jambs. Timber door with intersecting tracery. Two pointed windows to flanks. Stained glass to windows. Elaborate ironwork finials flanking gables. Railed forecourt with elaborate foliated wrought ironwork and simple tiled floor." The fishscale roof is beginning to deteriorate now, but mention must also be made of the small headstops on both the door and the windows. The fact that the mausoleum is described as later Victorian, yet the Count, if it is him, died in 1904, suggests that it was built to his design in his own lifetime.

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