East Mortuary Chapel Of Benfieldside Cemetery

The East Mortuary Chapel of Benfieldside Cemetery is a mortuary chapel built in 1876, now serving as a store-room for the Parks and Cemeteries Department. It is constructed from coursed squared sandstone with an ashlar plinth, quoins, and dressings, topped with a Welsh slate roof featuring stone gable copings. The chapel is designed in a T-plan and reflects the Decorated style of architecture.

The building is aligned north-south and includes a nave, a south transept, and a porch situated at the angle between these two sections. The west gable, which faces the front, features diagonally-boarded double doors set within a chamfered two-centred arch, surrounded by a moulded and shafted frame. A continuous dripmould aligns with a string course on the adjacent coped buttresses. Above the doors, there is a large wheel window adorned with cusped tracery, along with a lancet window at the peak of the gable.

To the right of the main gable, the porch has an open arch beneath a blind trefoil in the gable peak. A tower is positioned to the right of the main gable, featuring shouldered and cusped lights beneath a brattished parapet. The steeply-pitched stone coping below the belfry is decorated with a cusped arcade, and the octagonal spire is embellished with patterned bands and a wrought-iron finial.

On the left side of the building, two vehicle doors have been inserted into the buttressed bays, while a panel in the third bay contains a spherical-triangular window. The right return of the transept gable showcases a two-light window with cusped plate tracery and a large four-light east window. The steeply-pitched roofs are equipped with gabled kneelers and elaborate stone cross finials.