Mortuary chapels, Camberwell New Cemetery

Mortuary chapels, Camberwell New Cemetery

A pair of Anglican and nonconformist mortuary chapels dated 1928, designed by Aston Webb and his son Maurice, with Messrs Galbraith Brothers as builders. The cemetery itself opened in 1929, following three years of planning, with Webb appointed as architect by 11 January 1928.

The chapels are constructed in coursed rubble masonry with dressed stone, topped with a hipped roof of green slate laid in diminishing courses with flaring eaves.

The composition is organised in three parts. A central tower pierces the gable facing and contains a round-arched carriageway beneath. The tower has a square lower stage with three-setback buttresses, penetrated by double lancet bell louvres. The upper stage is octagonal in plan and carries a clock face. The tower tapers slightly, with corner buttresses rising from below the parapet and becoming flying buttresses above. Above the carriageway, set within a niche in the gable, stands a freestanding sculpture. The carriageway is marked at either side by broad buttresses that define the start of the chapel wings.

To the left (east) is the Anglican chapel; to the right is the nonconformist chapel. Both chapels have identical, mirror-image elevations. Each features a clerestory tucked beneath the eaves, comprising six windows set in a stone band, all flat-arched. Gable-facing cross wings at either end of each chapel are lit by round-arched, two-light traceried windows. Each cross wing has a single-storey gable-facing extension serving as a narthex to the chapel nave, entered via a single round-arched, sub-ordered door with an original boarded wood design.

The rear elevations mirror the fronts, except for single-storey vestries flanking the carriageway, each with one round-arched entrance. To the side of each vestry entrance is a triple window with stone mullions. The gutters to the eaves and several rainwater heads are of original design.

In the interior of the former Anglican chapel, furnishings remain intact, including a reredos set against the tower wall. The cross wings feature quadripartite groin vaulting.

A stone plinth on the east return of the carriageway bears a commemorative inscription and dedication recording the stone-laying by the Worshipful Mayor of Camberwell, Councillor H C Thompson, JP, on 6 October 1928, together with the names of the Mayor, Chairman (Councillor W Brenchley, JP), Vice Chairman (Councillor C W Chessell), aldermen, councillors, architects, town clerk, and builders.

The design is Gothic in character but executed with meticulous attention to detail, material, and workmanship in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement. The chapels form a group with the Lodge and Waiting Room to the north and the Entrance Gates from Brenchley Gardens.