Victorian explorer Richard Burton’s Mortlake mausoleum will be saved from ruin under a restoration project this year.

The Habitats & Heritage project, launched to mark the bicentenary of Burton’s birth on March 19, plans to rehabilitate the Syrian Bedouin tent-shaped mausoleum, which was carved to look as if it was billowing in the wind.

It was designed by Burton's wife Isabel as an ode to her husband's love affair with the Middle East.

Essential maintenance, including cleaning and re-liming the exterior, and addressing any cracks in the stone tent’s façade, will take place under the £30,000 proposal.

Habitats & Heritage project manager Emily Lunn said: “We’re trying to capitalise on a bit of interest on Richard Burton and encourage people to find out more about the fascinating explorer, and his unique mausoleum.”

Currently, visitors can see into the mausoleum by climbing a ladder at the back and peeking through a murky window.

But, restoration managers are hoping to reinstate a front door to allow visitors to step inside the Bedouin tent-shaped mausoleum in the grounds of St Mary Magdalen church.

The door was sealed shut and covered with plaques in the 1970s after people broke into the mausoleum, stole some of the objects on display, and vandalised the interior.

However, Lunn said the plan is subject to local planning permission and consent from Historic England, who have put the rundown mausoleum on an ‘at risk’ register.

“But, if we are able to get the permission and reinstate the door, we hope people will be able to enter, either on special days, like an open house weekend, or by appointment,” she explained.  

The mausoleum sits in a Catholic cemetery – a surprising decision for Burton, who was not religious.

The Mortlake plot was chosen by Burton and his wife Isabel Arundell, who was a devout Catholic, before their deaths in 1890 and 1896 respectively.

It is believed to have been picked by the Burtons for its proximity to Isabel’s aunt, who lived on Worple Way, Mortlake, and because other members of the family were buried there.

Despite the Catholic cemetery, however, the mausoleum is a clear tribute to the middle eastern tastes of Burton.

The shape of the mausoleum was modelled on the tent he used on expeditions to the Middle East, on many of which he was accompanied by Isabel.

Lunn said: “Even for a mausoleum, it’s really unique. You’ve got this amalgamation of it being in a Catholic cemetery with a cross on the front, and then a star and crescent motif which runs around the pelmet and is picked out in gold leaf, and a string of camel bells.”

The camel bells, according to Blue Badge guide Barry Walsh, were chosen by Isabel who was fearful of being buried alive.

She apparently planned to ring the bells to alert passersby if she suddenly woke up in the mausoleum.

Walsh explained: "Isabel was so frightened to being buried alive, she asked that a needle be put in her heart to make sure she was dead before she was buried.

"She also refused to be embalmed by injection or formaldyhyde and instead had her entrails removed."

Isabel also designed other aspects of the mausoleum to her tastes, including two Stars of Bethlehem, an ornate marble crucifix, and dozens of gilt-painted Islamic crescent and star symbols.

And, dotted around the mausoleum's marble floor are glass lamps and souvenirs from the couple’s far flung travels.

However, the intricate items Isabel painstakingly chose for their afterlife may now be at risk because the mausoleum's roof has started to crack, allowing water to drip into the interior.

Burton, who was born in Torquay, Devon, in 1821, was known for being a somewhat controversial character.

Fascinated by erotica, Burton published a translation of Arabian Nights that included a detailed explanation of sexual practices mentioned in the tales.

When it was released in 1880, it had to be privately purchased through a subscription because of the illicit content.

Burton also translated The Perfumed Garden, a fifteenth-century Arabic sex manual, though the copy was burned after his death by Isabel.

Walsh

has researched Richard and Isabel and their improbable Victorian lifestyle, for an August tour which will include to mausoleum, termed Burton a 'controversial character'.

"He was very unusual as an individual in the Victorian period", Walsh explained.

"Burton pushed the boundaries of morality and other things as well.”

His illustrious career, in which he was a poet, translator, diplomat, spy, author, cartographer, and soldiers (amongst other things) started when he, age 22, travelled to Mumbai with the army of the East India Company.

Burton later led expeditions searching for the source of the Nile in East Africa and discovered several lakes on the continent.

In a 1853 trip he disguised himself as a Muslim sheikh and traveled to Mecca and Medina to perform the Hajj - a daring thing to do as Europeans faced the death penalty for entering the Islamic holy city.

The Torquay-born explorer went on to serve as consul in Damascus in Syria and Trieste in Italy, as well as Brazil and West Africa.

He was believed to have command of 29 languages, and a further 11 dialects, and was fluent in Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi, and Marathi.

He was eventually laid to rest in the Mortlake mausoleum in June 1891 in front of 400 mourners who had lined the streets to pay their respects.