Toilet Block Porter's Lounge and Concrete Gazebo, Roselawn Cemetery and Crematorium, 127 Ballygowan Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT5 7TZ

Toilet Block, Porter's Lodge and Concrete Gazebo, Roselawn Cemetery and Crematorium, 127 Ballygowan Road, Belfast

These three structures — a toilet block, a porter's lodge, and a circular concrete gazebo — form part of the civic ensemble at Roselawn Cemetery, located within a large enclosed site on the east side of Ballygowan Road, northwest of Crossnacreevy. The toilet block and porter's lodge were completed in 1954 as part of the original cemetery facilities; the gazebo was designed by city architect J H Swann and completed in 1961 alongside the crematorium building. Together they represent a carefully considered set of mid-20th-century civic architecture, designed in a style clearly of their period, and they contribute to a significant architectural group within the cemetery grounds that also includes the Crematorium Building and the Gate Lodge and Gate Screen.

Toilet Block

A single-storey structure of rectangular plan. The roof is pitched and finished in natural slate with clay ridge tiles, timber fascia and barge boards, and uPVC replacement rainwater goods. The walls are red brick laid partly in Flemish bond with darker-coloured headers, partly in stretcher bond, and partly in rough-cast painted render. Windows are uPVC replacements set within projecting painted concrete surrounds. Doors are plain timber replacements.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged. To the left is a projecting portion with horizontal windows; to the right is a rendered section with recessed access doors and a separately accessed disabled toilet at the far right. The left gable is rough-cast rendered with a single door to the right and is further abutted by a screen wall. The right gable is rough-cast rendered with a single window to the right. The rear elevation is obscured.

Porter's Lodge

A single-storey structure of rectangular plan. The roof is pitched and finished in natural slate with clay ridge tiles, timber fascia and barge boards, and uPVC replacement rainwater goods. Walls are red brick laid in stretcher bond with areas of rough-cast painted render. Windows are timber casement with projecting painted concrete surrounds. The main entrance door is an aluminium-framed glazed replacement, sheltered by a concrete canopy supported on wedge-shaped concrete fins.

The principal gable faces east and is symmetrically arranged. It is abutted by a reduced rough-cast rendered entrance gable, with the entrance centrally positioned and high-level horizontal glazing to the red-brick cheeks on either side. The left elevation is asymmetrically arranged, featuring a tripartite window to the left and a single window to the right, with flanking piers. The rear gable has a timber door with a side-light to the right and no canopy. The right elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with a quadripartite window to the left and three individual reduced windows to the right without surrounds, and flanking piers.

Gazebo

A symmetrical circular concrete shelter divided into four equal segments. It has a flat circular canopy with a coffered underside, supported on a plain circular central column and four radiating wedge-shaped fins positioned at the canopy edge. Low-level walling runs between the supporting elements, with timber benches fitted between them.

Setting

The toilet block and porter's lodge are situated close to the cemetery entrance. The gazebo is located away from direct public view, adjacent to the crematorium building. The immediate landscape comprises lawned areas, flower beds, and groups of trees. The cemetery extends to the south, and open rural landscape lies beyond the site boundary.

Historical Background

Roselawn Cemetery was established on land purchased by Belfast Council from Down County Council in 1952, at Crossnacreevy and Slatady, in response to diminishing burial space at Belfast City and Dundonald cemeteries. The site was laid out as a "lawn" cemetery — an approach designed to eliminate the pillars, railings, and hoops typical of older cemeteries, retaining only a limited area at the head of each grave for a headstone and planting. This was intended to give the cemetery the appearance of a large lawn interspersed with headstones, allowing it to be maintained more economically. Roses were planted along the main driveway, giving the site its name.

In 1952 plans were drawn up for two gate houses at the entrance, each with a living room, sitting room, kitchen, three bedrooms, bathroom, and WC. The total cost of the entrance structures and other buildings on the site was £33,000. The entrance gates and boundary wall cost £6,900, and the avenues and paths £135,100, with coloured flags supplied by Grainger Brothers of Holywood at a cost of £1,400. The 106-acre site was planned to provide 75,000 grave plots, to be developed in stages with 4,000 plots released in the initial phase. As the cemetery neared completion, Dundonald Cemetery was forced to close to new burials, and Roselawn had to open earlier than intended, before its permanent offices and lavatories were finished. The land was dedicated on Thursday 6 April 1954 in a ceremony attended by representatives of the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches.

The question of cremation had been long contested in Belfast. The growing cremation movement of the 1870s met fierce resistance in Britain, though private crematoria began to be established there from 1885 and the first municipal crematorium was built in Hull in 1901. Belfast proved considerably more conservative. In 1933, a year when several thousand cremations took place in Britain, a proposal for a Belfast crematorium was narrowly defeated; one Corporation councillor remarked that "nobody wants to be cremated except a few cranks and snobs, and I think the proposal is ridiculous." Theological objections centred on the view that cremation was a desecration of the human body and would prevent resurrection. The proposal was defeated at least twice more, in 1938 and again in 1948, when a crematorium amendment to legislation establishing the National Health Service in Northern Ireland was ultimately dropped. By that point the focus had shifted to the cost of running such a facility, which was estimated to require an annual income of at least £7,500. The Roman Catholic Church was described as "100% against cremation," which reduced the prospect of financial viability. It was noted that Protestants from the Republic of Ireland wishing to be cremated "could just as cheaply be sent to Liverpool as Belfast." Despite widespread opposition, 10 people from Northern Ireland were sent to Britain for cremation in 1946 rather than be buried at home.

By the early 1950s, 15 percent of burials in Britain were of cremated ashes, and opposition to cremation was falling away in Northern Ireland. Designs for a crematorium at Roselawn, prepared by city architect J H Swann, were drawn up as early as 1956, though the building was not completed and officially opened until 10 May 1961. As the first crematorium in Ireland, it attracted considerable media and institutional interest.

The crematorium cost approximately £100,000 to build and was arranged over two floors. The basement contained the committal chamber, furnace room, coffin store, fan room, and electrical switchgear. At ground level were the vestibule, main chapel, chapel of rest, waiting rooms, toilets, Book of Remembrance, wreath display area, staff dining room, music room, minister's room, administrative offices, and an enclosed yard for garden tools and equipment. The copper-clad spire incorporated an extensive water storage system, and the chimney from the cremator flue was concealed at the rear so as not to rise above the level of the chapel roof. The roof was covered in olive green Buttermere slates; the brickwork was Dungannon red with sills and copings of reconstituted Portland stone. Separate entrances and exits were provided so that different groups of mourners would not encounter one another. The chapel had pew seating for 100 people and an electrically operated catafalque to raise and lower the coffin.

Cremation was carried out using gas-fired Dowson and Mason "super-twin" cremators, with space reserved for an additional twin furnace. The crematorium superintendent, B G Fenner, held the Cremator Operator's Certificate issued by the Federation of Cremation Authorities. The first cremation took place in July 1961, with an expected annual capacity of approximately 700 bodies.

The Books of Remembrance and their display cabinet were made by A C Foley and were originally the only form of memorial to those cremated. In 1978 the cemetery launched a scheme allowing a tree or bulbs to be planted in memory of the deceased; over 3,000 trees were planted as a result, and planting eventually had to be carried out in copses rather than as individual specimens. In 1963 the Catholic Church lifted its ban on cremation for Catholics, though there was no crematorium in the Republic of Ireland until 1982. Roselawn remains one of only three crematoria on the island of Ireland and the only one in the province.

In 1979 the cemetery was extended by 17 acres, and further land has been added over the years as pressure on burial space has increased. The site has been progressively landscaped and now includes a number of lakes and water features. In March 1987 an explosion at the cemetery gate caused extensive damage to one of the gate houses, which has since been removed.

Among those buried at Roselawn are Northern Ireland footballer George Best (1946–2005) and Unionist MP James Kilfedder (1928–1995). The cemetery also contains graves associated with the Troubles, including those of police and prison officers, soldiers, and victims of the Abercorn Restaurant, Oxford Street, and La Mon House Hotel bombings.

All three structures — the toilet block, porter's lodge, and gazebo — are shown on the Ordnance Survey map edition dating from 1971.