Cardross Crematorium

Cardross Crematorium

A clean-lined, geometric crematorium in Scandinavian modern style, opened in 1960 in Cardross cemetery. The building has cream-harled walls and green copper roofs, and stands prominently on an elevated, out-of-town site with views across the Clyde and surrounding Argyll hills. It was designed by John Watson (junior) (1903-1977) of the architectural firm Watson, Salmond and Gray, and features a prominent chapel, porte-cochère, a sculpture by Hew Lorimer, and intact internal decorative features.

The building is arranged on an east to west axis. Uniformly plain exterior elevations are of painted roughcast over brick with regularly spaced square or rectangular windows. Doorways, windows and margins are edged with stone or imitation stone, with some door and window surrounds having flat, squared column detailing. Doors are mainly of panelled timber, approached by stone steps. The plan includes a square-plan porte-cochère and store room projecting to the south.

The central, double-height chapel has a shallow-pitched roof and three long clerestory windows to its south, west and north elevations, over four smaller square windows on the north elevation. A shallow-pitched roofed chapel tower and rectangular-plan chimney adjoin to the east. The chimney was raised in height around 1994. The west elevation of the chapel lobby is connected to the garden of remembrance via three multi-paned glazed doors, surrounded by advanced squared columns and approached by stone steps.

On the main south elevation, the tall-arched porte-cochère features a pyramidal roof and ball-finial. To the east, a 7-bay loggia with rectangular-plan columns terminates at its east end with a sculpted stone figure representing 'All Embracing Truth' by Hew Lorimer (1907-1993), set within a high squared recess. To the west of the south elevation, a single-storey, 7-bay block contains offices and toilets.

The public interior areas are plain, light and airy, with good quality materials and craftsmanship. The chapel's central chancel has a semi-circular apsidal termination with a Polververa and light green Swedish marble base, and a vertical strip of Porto Santo marble behind the catafalque. The chapel features light oak panelling on the west wall and on a gallery to the west. Four segmental arches open to the south aisle, leading to a small marble-lined chapel of remembrance with ironwork.

The porte-cochère and vaulted entrance hall contain semi-circular sculpted plaster panels by Donald Bisset positioned above the doorways. Four represent the seasons, and the fifth displays the Dunbartonshire county coat of arms with a background landscape scene. The coat of arms is also mounted above the door to the chapel, above the chancel, and incorporated into the chapel of remembrance flooring.

The receiving room to the east contains two cremators, an upper level and staff facilities. One cremator was installed in the 1990s.

A crematorium and cemetery were first planned for this site in 1947, when Dunbartonshire County Council reserved a 10-acre plot in the countryside northwest of Cardross. While the cemetery opened in 1950, negotiations about the crematorium proved protracted, with Clydebank and Dunbartonshire County Councils both claiming the greater need. The matter was resolved in 1955 when the government approved two new crematoria, one for each council area. Cardross Crematorium was designed and built between 1956 and 1960 during the peak era of local authority crematorium building in Scotland and the UK. A drawing of the proposed building was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1956. Malcolm Ross, County Engineer and Planning Officer, was responsible for the overall site layout and the garden of remembrance.

Since completion in 1960, the building has been subject only to minor alterations. During the 1990s, a new cremator was installed and the chimney was raised by approximately one metre to comply with revised emissions regulations. Additional paths were laid out in the garden of remembrance sometime after 1966. In 2019, works were carried out to improve accessibility, including alterations to the toilets in the west of the building and the levelling of the route from the car park to the chapel.