By 1851 Cockerell was in poor health and spent that summer recuperating at his sister Anne Pollen's house in Somerset, from this time on his architectural practice virtually ceased. The family moved to 13 Chester Terrace, it was here that he died on 17 September 1863, aged 75. He was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, a perk of being the cathedral's surveyor, his marble tomb consists of his profile portrait, suspended from an Ionic column, surrounded by rich embellishment.