Pair Of Chapels At Isleworth Cemetery

787/0/10139 PARK ROAD 05-NOV-02 Isleworth (West,off) Pair of Chapels at Isleworth Cemetery

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Isleworth Cemetery Chapels. Pair of cemetery chapels with central porte cochere. 1879, ascribed to Mr Farnell, architect. MATERIALS: yellow stock brick with red brick decoration and yellow Gault brick to interiors; Bath stone dressings; fish-scale red tiled roof. PLAN: pair of chapels: each of three bays with chancel, to north (Nonconformist) and south (Anglican) of a central porte cochere. EXTERIOR: Free Githic Revival. Each chapel is of three bays, each bay with paired lancets, set between buttresses; yellow brick window arches with red brick surrounds. Banded red brick to walls. Chancels to each end with clasping buttresses to corners; large traceried three-light east windows (boarded over at time of inspection). West ends have rose windows over two lancets with further brick banding. Central section comprises a larged moulded archway within a gable, with angle-set buttresses: Cross motif in upper part of gable enclosing a shield with the IHS monogram. Above, an octagonal two-stage spire with a slatted belfry to the lower level, the lancet openings set between buttresses; parapet to lower section with an arcade of trefoil-headed blind openings. Tapering spire above. Within the archway is a lateral passage with arched openings leading to the chapels. The roof of the central crossing is in polychrome bands of stone and brick, with moulded ribs and a central boss. Some decorative brick facing to arches. Plank doors with decorative hinges. INTERIOR: only that of the Anglican (southern) chapel inspected. Open trussed roof; decorative brick polychromy to walls; Serpentine colonnettes to the moulded chancel arch; reredos with decorative carving to centre, trefoil-headed arcade to either side; encaustic tiles to chancel floor. Stained glass in east window depicting the Ascension of Christ flanked by Apostles. Drip-mould with carved bosses above. HISTORY: a vigorously designed example of a cemetery chapel, designed in the High Victorian Gothic manner (influenced by Ruskin and William Butterfield) retaining much of its decoration. Isleworth Cemetery was opened in 1879: the chapel dominates the compact two-and-a-half acre cemetery. A lodge and a mortuary were also designed in a matching style. The Anglican chapel was last used for a service in c.1970 and has been used as a council store ever since. Stabilising repairs were carried out to the formerly dangerous spire in c.2000.

SOURCE: Hugh Meller, 'London Cemeteries' (3rd ed.) 171.