THE CEMETERY ON THE THRESHOLD OF CHANGE
Local communities respond
The Friends are working in partnership with local community groups to urge the prospective owners of Kensal Green Cemetery to
- As a charity, deliver community-focused benefits through changes in the management of Kensal Green Cemetery, and
- Propose a framework for working in collaboration with local communities to develop and oversee a Conservation Management Plan for the Cemetery which preserves its much-loved character and buildings and welcomes a diverse range of visitors, including bereaved families and communities.
What has happened so far
The private company (the General Cemetery Company, GCC) which currently owns and manages Kensal Green Cemetery became empowered by Act of Parliament in 2025 to place ownership of the Cemetery in the hands of a charitable organisation.
Proposals developed over the last few years are for a new organisation to be registered with the Charity Commission and to acquire freehold ownership from the GCC. In due course that charity will prepare a Conservation Management Plan and begin trying to raise charitable funds for the repair and conservation of the historic landscape and buildings. The GCC reported to Parliament that in 2024 an estimated £30million is required in total, but we don't know what is included in that, or whether there will be sources of funds in addition to grants. In any case, it would be a huge investment in this treasured local site with a uniquely tranquil character, involving many years of work.
Charitable investment on this scale will not be available without community support, and demonstrable public and community benefit.
The Cemetery is particularly vulnerable at present
The development of Kensal Canalside Opportunity Area to the south of the Cemetery received Planning Consent from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in November 2025. The approved proposals are for a ten-year development programme resulting in a wall of new buildings on the Cemetery's southern boundary, including three tower blocks, introducing new communities to the Cemetery. Further stages of construction will begin during that period. There is a real risk that the Cemetery will be blighted by construction noise and cut off by traffic congestion from communities in the south. In the longer term, the area known as Dissenters' Burial Ground will be in permanent shadow throughout the winter months, potentially making the current visitor facility at Dissenters' Chapel (the building backing onto Ladbroke Grove) even less attractive and useful than at present.
It is vitally important that local communities and residents come forward to protect Kensal Green Cemetery and to enhance its unique contribution to local life.
What are local people doing?
The Cemetery is of peripheral concern to four local authorities: it lies partly within Kensington and Chelsea, partly in Hammersmith and Fulham; Brent occupies the northern (Harrow Road) boundary and Westminster is a neighbour on the north-eastern side of the site. Nevertheless, local councillors of all four authorities are open to representations from their constituents, and are willing to support the idea of the charity's introducing a structured framework for consulting and involving communities in the changes ahead.
Local residents' associations are urging the emerging new charity to make arrangements to:
- Form a group to support the charity's board in liaising and consulting with local communities;
- Agree the areas of the charity's work on which local people will be consulted before decisions are made;
- Hold an annual meeting with community representatives to consider progress on the charity's conservation plans and issues or obstacles which are being encountered.
Why speak up now?
To register as a charity, the new organisation must prepare some form of 'prospectus' demonstrating how the public will benefit from its work and that its plans are viable and sustainable. There is very little information about what local communities, or visitors generally, value in the Cemetery, nor the benefits which they would value in future. Some suggestions have been made to the Friends in the past, but a direct approach to the people who can make change (subject to resources and other, competing needs) would have greater impact.