Cemetery Chapels

Cemetery chapels, designed in 1869 and completed in 1872 by George Gilbert Scott junior in a Late Gothic style. The chapels were built for the Ramsgate Burial Board at a cost of £6000. They are constructed of flint with stone dressings and a plaintiled roof. The design is symmetrical, with east and west chapels flanking a central tower, and features asymmetrical window placement. The eastern chapel has square-headed Decorated style windows and a four-light arched window to the east. The western chapel has pointed windows, with a similarly designed west window. The tower has a square-headed window to the north and a pointed window to the south; the distinction reflecting the Anglican and Nonconformist chapel designations respectively. The two-stage tower includes offset buttresses and a south-eastern square turret with two-light belfry openings and battlements. A tiled roof tops the tower, along with a weathervane. Arched doorways, with plank and stud doors, are situated on the south side of each chapel. The western chapel is now used as storage rooms, but retains original features including college-type pews and a brick floor. The eastern chapel serves as a Remembrance Chapel and has a three-bay roof with a kingpost, tiebeams, and arched braces. A late 20th-century wood and glazed internal porch and a brick floor are also present. This commission represents George Gilbert Scott junior's first work in the Late Gothic style and is notable for its shift away from High Victorian Gothic, embracing Englishness and refinement. The Chairman of the Ramsgate Burial Board, the Reverend Charles Carus Wilson, Vicar of Ramsgate, later became a client of Scott’s in Leamington (St Mark’s New Milverton, and Vicarage).