The Chandos Mausoleum is attached to the north side of the church of St Lawrence Whitchurch, which is sited at the southeast corner of Canons Park in the London Borough of Harrow

London Borough of Harrow

The London Borough of Harrow is a London borough of north-west London. It borders Hertfordshire to the north and other London boroughs: Hillingdon to the west, Ealing to the south, Brent to the south-east and Barnet to the east.-History:...

, England. It was built for the 1st Duke of Chandos

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos

James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, MP, PC was the first of fourteen children by Sir James Brydges, 3rd Baronet of Wilton Castle, Sheriff of Herefordshire, 8th Baron Chandos; and Elizabeth Barnard...

 in 1735, and designed by James Gibbs

James Gibbs

James Gibbs was one of Britain's most influential architects. Born in Scotland, he trained as an architect in Rome, and practised mainly in England...

. The church is an active Anglican

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

 parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

, and the mausoleum

Mausoleum

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

 is vested

Vesting

In law, vesting is to give an immediately secured right of present or future enjoyment. One has a vested right to an asset that cannot be taken away by any third party, even though one may not yet possess the asset. When the right, interest or title to the present or future possession of a legal...

 in the Churches Conservation Trust

Churches Conservation Trust

The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was established by the Pastoral Measure of 1968...

. The church has been designated by English Heritage

English Heritage

English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...

 as a Grade I listed building.

The interior walls of the mausoleum are decorated with paintings in trompe l'oeil

Trompe l'oeil

Trompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...

 style by Brunetti. It contains memorials to members of the Chandos family. On the west wall is a sculptured monument to the 1st Duke showing him in a wig dressed as a Roman citizen

Roman citizenship

Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to certain free-born individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance....

. This figure is flanked by plain pilaster

Pilaster

A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....

s outside which are the kneeling figures of his two wives, Mary and Cassandra

Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos

Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos was a British historian, travel writer and artist.She was the daughter of Francis Willoughby of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a writer on natural history, and his wife Emma, the daughter of Sir Henry Barnard of Bridgnorth,...

. There are two monuments on the south wall. One is a black sarcophagus

Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

 against a white pyramid to the memory of Mary, the wife of the 1st Marquess of Carnarvon, who died in 1738. It was designed by Sir Henry Cheere

Sir Henry Cheere, 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Cheere, 1st Baronet was a renowned English sculptor and monumental mason of the eighteenth century, and older brother of John Cheere, also a notable sculptor.-Personal life and career:...

. The other is a white sarcophagus to Margaret, the Marchioness of Carnarvon, who died in 1760.