Cemetery Chapel

The cemetery chapel, built in 1906, was designed by the architect Reginald B Rowell for the Urban District Council of Barnes and takes inspiration from a 14th-century style. It is situated within a landscaped cemetery setting, framed by mature trees at the head of the main drive.

The building is constructed from random limestone and sandstone blocks with ashlar dressings and has tile roofs. The rectangular plan comprises three bays, with the altar facing south, short narrow transepts, a lower, north-facing entrance porch, and a tall, slender fleche centrally placed on the ridge.

The exterior features buttressed nave and transepts with a moulded plinth and eaves. The steeply-pitched roofs have moulded ashlar gable parapets and kneelers. Nave windows are two-light with cusped heads within rectangular openings, topped by hoodmoulds. Above the entrance porch is an encircled quatrefoil window. The transepts have two-light, cusped, pointed-arched windows; the east window has three lights with cusped intersecting tracery. All windows rise from a deep chamfered cill band. South-facing doorways are set within moulded arches on both transepts. The steeply pitched porch has a moulded outer arch with later 19th-century Gothic Revival wrought iron gates that reflect the window mouldings. The inner entrance has a moulded arch and a pair of vertical boarded doors, with small cusped lights to either side. Inside the porch is a foundation stone inscribed ‘Erected by the Urban District Council of Barnes 1906’ and bearing the name of the architect Reginald B Rowell, A.R.I.B.A. The tiled floor has exposed roof timbers.

A tall, slender, four-sided fleche rises from the ridge, set diagonally on the roof and topped with an ornate iron finial.

Inside, the walls are faced in red brick with plain chamfered brick or flush stone dressings, and the windows have simple moulded rear arches. The arch-braced roof is supported by moulded stone corbels, featuring open trusses with pierced trefoils at the apex. Purlins are separated from the principals by a short spur, and the roof is diagonally-boarded. The floor is timber parquet. Fittings include pine pews arranged collegiately, with pierced quatrefoil front panels and bench ends; a panelled oak altar on a tiled marble base; and a later pine transept screen with cusped heads, partially masking a vestry. Bronze memorials include a medallion to John Alexander Cole and a wreath, the cartouche bearing a worn inscription commemorating members of the Black Watch Regiment.

Within the cemetery, two monuments are of particular note: the memorial to George William Lancaster and Elisa Mary Lancaster, by Sidney March (Grade II* listed building), and the memorial to Markham Buxton, by his son Alfred Buxton (Grade II listed building).