Lawnswood Cemetery Chapels And Crematorium

SE23NE 714-1/6/939 05/08/76

LEEDS OTLEY ROAD, Lawnswood (West side) Lawnswood Cemetery Chapels and Crematorium

II

2 chapels linked by a colonnade and an added crematorium. The chapels and colonnade 1870-76 by George Corson, the crematorium added 1905, by WS Braithwaite. Coursed squared gritstone, tiled roofs. Gothic Revival style. Chapel group: to north a Church of England chapel of 3 bays with 2-light windows, buttresses, polygonal apse at N end, an octagonal turret with louvred belfry and tiled spire roof at SE corner. An open cloister of 3 arches, the columns of polished Aberdeen granite, links to the nonconformist chapel which is set at right angles and has large 3-light stained-glass windows with circular tracery and carved spandrels in the gable ends. The crematorium: 5 bays in similar style, attached to the S end of the chapel group. Gothic-style windows, buttresses, coped gables with ball finials; tall square tower (chimney flue) at NW corner with octagonal 'belfry' stage. A plaque in the basement records that this crematorium was the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, opened 4 January 1905; an architect's drawing is dated January 1904. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORICAL NOTE: Lawnswood Cemetery was opened in 1875, the church portion consecrated by the Bishop of Ripon on 31 December. Each chapel had an attached robing room, hot water pipes and radiators, the cost was »7,500. George Corson was responsible for the layout of the cemetery which was needed for the expanding population of the suburbs of Headingley and Far Headingley.

Listing NGR: SE26977439078