Cemetery Lodge, Gorleston Old Cemetery

Cemetery Lodge, Gorleston Old Cemetery

This is a cemetery gate and lodge built in 1879 by J. W. Cockrill (1849-1924), designed in the Gothic Revival style. It stands on the west side of Magdalen Way at the corner with Crab Lane.

The building is constructed in red brick with terracotta detailing, a renewed plain-tile roof, and terracotta crest tiles. The structure integrates both a gateway and a lodge, wrapping around the corner site.

The gateway frontage, visible from the roadside, is a single-storey structure of three bays. A tall central carriage arch is recessed between a pedestrian side gate to the right and the main lodge entrance to the left. Both the carriage entrance and pedestrian entrance retain wrought iron gates; the pedestrian gate appears to be original. Above the three arches, slightly recessed, are panels of decorative brickwork in basket weave bond with moulded brick columns separating the three compartments. Through the pedestrian entrance, to the right, is a small triangular-shaped recess with wooden benches along one side for shelter and contemplation.

Accessed from the cemetery side of the gate is a small lodge with a tall gable stack, intended for a gardener or groundsman. This has been sympathetically extended along Crab Lane. The main lodge building is incorporated into the gate structure. While some of the terracotta decorative detail from the gateway facade is continued on its roadside face, the lodge is generally a simpler structure and clearly domestic in character. The two-storey lodge is built in brick with a tiled roof; the upper storey is coated in rough cast render. Windows and the rear door are modern uPVC replacements, as is the wooden front door. Behind the lodge is a courtyard garden enclosed by a wall with gateways from both the roadside and cemetery side. A single public convenience is incorporated into the courtyard wall on the cemetery side.

Internally, the lodge contains three rooms on each floor. A small bathroom extension was added to the ground floor around 1980, and one bedroom was later converted into a further bathroom. All original panelled doors survive, as does the deep skirting, but the original fireplaces have been removed or sealed.

The cemetery itself was laid out in 1879 to a design by Cockrill. The gate lodge was built as part of the first phase, with a chapel by the same architect added in 1889. The development of Gorleston in the late 19th century saw the growth of a seaside resort to the south, with various select residential developments and public buildings. Cockrill, a native of Gorleston who served as Borough Council Surveyor for 40 years, was instrumental in the Victorian development of both Great Yarmouth and Gorleston. Other notable buildings he designed include the Pavilion (1901, listed Grade II).

The cemetery lodge is an example of the municipal cemetery movement that developed from the 1850s onwards, when local authorities began to open Burial Board cemeteries to replace urban graveyards. Cemetery buildings such as lodges and chapels were typically designed to form an integral part of an overall scheme, often by the same architect as the cemetery layout itself.