Golders Green Crematorium

Golders Green Crematorium

A crematorium built between 1901 and 1939 on Hoop Lane in Golders Green, designed by Ernest George and Alfred B Yeates. Yeates designed many minor features after 1920, including walls and connecting arches, with the eastern extension of the cloister. Mitchell and Bridgewater contributed designs detailed below. The complex comprises an extensive group of buildings including chapels, a hall of memory, columbaria, cloisters, and offices, all linked by a single-storey spine to the south. The buildings are largely executed in round-arched Lombardic style in red and blue brick with pantile roofs.

The nucleus of the original complex is at the west end of the site and consists of offices, the West Columbarium, and the West Chapel with related structures dating to 1901-03. The West Columbarium (1902-03) is square in plan with a pyramidal roof, its elevations articulated by brick piers, a polygonal stair tower, and round-arched windows to the clerestory under the eaves. The interior has been somewhat altered. Attached to it is a square open cloister dating to 1913-14 and a series of low utility blocks. A single-storey range now serving as a cafe and a two-storey block closing the extreme west court of the site are specifically excluded from this listing.

The Reception Block is attached to the spine by a round-arched portal with crowstepped parapet. It is rectangular in plan, running at right angles to the spine, with round-arched recesses to the ground floor on east- and north-facing elevations, a five-window range to the east and two-window range to the north. A single-storey porch was added to the west, dating to around 1930, and a stone portal inscribed "Reception" was added to the east face at roughly the same date. The listing includes a pair of electric light brackets fixed to the north face of the block.

A loggia faces the courtyard between the Reception Block and the West Chapel, comprising seven bays of round arches with the centre gap projecting in an aedicule. The West Chapel is architecturally the most prominent element in the group. Its nave is rectangular in plan with round-arched clerestory lights and a round-arched entrance porch to the west, square in plan. Campanile and furnace rooms adjoin to the east. The interior features a marble floor, open timber roof, panelled dado, and red brick walling. Early fittings and memorials by George and Yeates survive, including a bust of Sir Henry Thompson, pioneer of cremation, by W S Frith (1904). South windows date to 1912. The north end below the gallery has been altered; the space below was originally a waiting area.

The East Chapel was designed by Mitchell and Bridgewater in 1938-9. It is rectangular in plan, at right angles to the south spine, with an entrance in the north elevation set in a two-storey round-arched recess and a timber-framed entrance hood. A wall with portal links the East Chapel to the Bedford Chapel (1920-1930), executed in neo-Georgian style with a round-arched portal and stepped parapet.

The Bedford Chapel is single-storey with a hipped roof and gable-facing entrance porch in the centre. It is rectangular in plan and was completed in 1911 for the Duke of Bedford. Its south wall abuts the East Columbarium.

The East Columbarium (1911-13) is five storeys, square in plan with rebated corners. Its galleries are in Hopton Wood stone; each face is articulated by a pair of recesses for windows, each finishing in a corbel table, with round-arched lights to the clerestory. A slightly lower block adjoins to the east.

The Ernest George Columbarium, east of the East Columbarium, was designed by Alfred B Yeates (1922-28). It is symmetrical with end towers and a small apsidal projection at the centre of the wall between the towers. External brick diaper work decorates the facade. To the south the end towers project as wings, forming a courtyard which is closed by a five-bay arcade.

Walls east of the George Columbarium are single-storey, pierced by round diaphragm arches, opening onto an open cloister court dating to around 1920-1930. Fixed to the east wall is a particularly grand memorial tabernacle in Portland stone, inscribed "The Earth and the Spirit Abideth Forever" in the entablature.

At the east end of the site stand the Chapel of Memory and Chapel of Memory Columbarium (1938-9), by Mitchell and Bridgewater. The Chapel is rectangular in plan with the long axis running east-west; the Columbarium is rectangular in plan running at right angles to the Chapel and is taller. To the south, the gable end of the Columbarium features a three-bay vaulted cloister.

To the south of the West Columbarium are the War Memorial Portico and Lily Pool (1919-20), in Portland stone, by an architect unknown.

The range lining the southern elevations includes an exedral cloister at its east end, entered from the south, which forms the remains of a pergola laid out with the advice of William Robinson in 1907. It comprises a brick wall and piers with tile coping, the wall returning for some two dozen bays through number 35, all included in this listing.

The Cloister Ranges feature a round-arched loggia; some bays are spanned by round diaphragm arches, whilst the majority are defined by trusses of wood finishing above a brick pier in the rear wall of the cloister. The range backing onto the West Columbarium through the Bedford Chapel has 21 bays with a slightly projecting aedicule in the tenth bay.

The Chapel of Memory Cloister comprises nine bays, stepping up the slope of the site in three-bay sections, each with separate roofs and broken joins, terminating in a three-bay vaulted cloister in the gable end of the Chapel of Memory Columbarium.

The plaques lining the cloister, the open cloisters, the exedra and wall, and the several halls and chapels are numerous, with many fine examples of memorial art scattered amongst plainer slabs. Most are worthy of retention and are included in this listing. The group includes the wall to the north running along the pavement of Hoop Lane, and in the grounds to the south: the Martin Smith Mausoleum, the Philipson Mausoleum, and the sculpture titled "Into the Silent Land".