The mysterious Courtoy Mausoleum, a twenty foot tall trapezoid of dark polished granite with a pyramidal rood and a huge copper door is the largest monument in Brompton Cemetery. Built as the final resting place of the 19th century heiress Hannah Courtoy and her two daughters, the mausoleum was designed by the eccentric Victorian inventor Samuel Warner and the Egyptologist and sculptor Joseph Bonomi. 

Since its construction in 1854 a legend has arisen that it houses a secret time machine. This was born out of the mysterious inscriptions based on Egyptian hieroglyphics and some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s more obscure sketches that adorn the mausoleum’s exterior walls and supposedly reveal the secret of time travel to anyone schooled enough to read them. HG Wells was inspired by this fantastical story to write his novella, “The Time Machine”. 

Samuel Warner was murdered in mysterious circumstances in 1853 and shortly afterwards the key to the mausoleum's great bronze door went missing. Stephen Coates has resurrected this bizarre story and brought it to the attention of the international press. In his talk he will expand on the myth and another extraordinary recent development in the history of this unique monument.