Burton: Exploring Without Boundaries

Habitats & Heritage are restoring the fascinating mausoleum of the Victorian explorer, Sir Richard Burton and his wife Lady Isabel in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church, Mortlake. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and matchfunded by private donors, the project will repair and conserve the mausoleum and its surroundings, preserving it for future generations.

We are working in partnership with the church and local heritage organisations, including the Museum of Richmond. We are also delivering an outreach and education project that will offer a new perspective on the history and legacy of Sir Richard and Lady Isabel Burton.

Conservation

We will restore and repair the exterior and interior of the mausoleum, preserving the fabric of this Grade II* listed building. This includes cataloguing and preserving the many objects housed inside. An exciting part of this project is our plan to reinstate the door which has been boarded up for over 50 years. This will greatly improve the accessibility of the site and allow the public to get a closer look inside. A renewed path to the mausoleum will also improve access for visitors through the churchyard. The planned works to the mausoleum will start in Spring 2025 and is due to be completed by Autumn 2025.

Burton and Islam

One of the most fascinating aspects of Sir Richard Burton’s legacy is his engagement with Islamic culture. Amongst the many ways in which the Victorian explorer engaged with Muslims and Muslim culture is by ‘converting’ to Islam, assuming a Muslim identity to perform the pilgrimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia known as the Hajj. He also translated the famous collection of stories known popularly in the West as the 1001 Arabian Nights. This project will collaborate with the RC Church of St Mary Magdalen, and organisations such as Everyday Muslim and Multicultural Richmond to establish an interfaith conversation around Burton, culture and religion.

Interpretation

Sir Richard Burton has a complicated legacy. His extraordinary antics have inspired generations of explorers, such as Levison Wood, however, his problematic engagement with religion, in particular with Islam, has caused controversy since his time. We intend to work carefully and sensitively with all the stakeholders and communities affected by this legacy and using this engagement to inform the project’s interpretive outputs. We will also be highlighting Lady Isabel’s life, explore her experiences of international travel, and her role in building the mausoleum. Our key interpretative outputs include information boards installed at the site, a local heritage trail, and educational resources.

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