Jewish Prayer House, Western Necropolis, Tresta Road, Glasgow

Jewish Prayer House, Western Necropolis, Tresta Road, Glasgow

This is a Jewish cemetery that opened in 1882. The site is laid out over rising ground sloping to the north-east, with a mixture of grid and curving paths. The cemetery contains a large number of memorials including Celtic crosses, obelisks and sculpture, with the finest examples positioned on the higher ground.

Boundary walls, gatepiers, gates and railings

The western boundary has a low random rubble wall. The southern boundary comprises a dwarf random rubble wall surmounted by ornate wrought and cast iron railings. At the entrance stand 6 sandstone gatepiers of square plan with chamfered corners and large caps decorated with cusped panels, surmounted by orbs. Ornate wrought iron gates and panels flanked by sections of railings complete the entrance. The flanking sections stand on a random squared rubble wall with stone and concrete saddleback coping.

Crematorium

The crematorium was designed by James Chalmers and built between 1893 and 1895, with later additions including a tower (early 20th century) and extensions to the south and north-east (mid-20th century). It is Gothic in style, originally comprising a short rectangular nave with a very short transept to the north and a transept to the south. A tower with stair turret stands to the north, and a later addition is positioned to the south.

The building is constructed predominantly of coursed squared red sandstone rubble with ashlar quoins and margins. It has an eaves cornice and predominantly pitched red-brown tiled roofs with stone skews and some moulded skewputts. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The western principal elevation features, to the outer left, a tower. To the left stands an advanced 2-storey gable-end of the nave with full-height gabled angle buttresses. Steps lead up to a cusp-arched doorway with complex carving to its archivault. A string course divides the ground and first floors. Above this is a stepped recessed tripartite window divided by buttress-style mullions with cusp-arched heads. To the left of the nave is a recessed single bay with a cusp-arched window with chevron moulding. To the right of the nave is a 3-bay, 2-storey transept with an advanced gabled central bay featuring a blocked rectangular window to the ground floor and a hoodmoulded recessed cusp-arched window to the gable. The flanking bays have single cusp-arched windows with chevron moulding to the first floor, and all 3 bays have a first floor cill course with continuous hoodmould. To the outer right is an advanced piend-roofed section with small angle buttresses. Steps lead to a 2-leaf timber-boarded door in a segmental opening with a relief plaque depicting an angel. A parapet breaks the eaves above.

The northern side elevation features the tower to the outer right. To the left is a single-storey, 4-bay elevation with outer bays slightly advanced. The bays have bipartite windows.

The eastern rear elevation is largely a blank curtain wall. To the outer left is a pointed arched doorway. To the right is a trabeated doorway. At the centre is the original square incinerator stack with an ashlar top, flanked by round-arched openings. To the right is a gabled section with steps leading to a 2-leaf timber-boarded door with a raised door surround incorporating a phoenix relief to the top and flanked by small buttresses. Behind the wall is the eastern gable end of the nave with paired slim cusp-arched windows and a vesica window above.

The southern side elevation is 6 bays and 2-storey to the 2nd and 3rd bays from the left. The outer left bay has a pair of windows. The 2nd bay from the left is slightly advanced with 2 small windows to the ground floor and a tripartite segmentally arched window to the first floor, all set in a recessed ashlar panel. The 3rd, 4th and 5th bays have pointed arched openings with modern glazed infill to the ground floor, with small arched windows to the first floor of the 3rd bay. The outer right bay is buttressed and advanced with an ashlar finish and a pointed arched glazed opening.

The tower is 6-stage with a square plan, low angle buttresses and a canted stair bay to the east elevation. The west elevation has a shallow window to the ground stage, a blind window to the 2nd stage, and above these a tall lancet flanked by slender buttresses surmounted by small lancets. The north elevation has shallow windows to the ground and 1st stage, above which stands a tall lancet flanked by slender buttresses. The east elevation has round-headed windows to the upper 4 stages of the canted bay. The south elevation is similar to the north but with the lowest stages obscured.

The interior features a 3-bay pointed arched arcaded nave with squat marble columns set with high bases and dog-tooth moulded capitals between the westmost bays. Window surrounds have roll moulding. An exposed timber collar-beam roof spans the nave. To the north is a round arched opening with a modern metal screen leading into the tower, which serves as a columbarium with square marble-faced galleries grouped around a central void, top-lit by a stained glass dome. The building contains some good stained glass, including work by Harrington Mann of Guthrie and Wells (1950) and Gordon Webster (1965).

Jewish Prayer House

Situated in the Jewish Cemetery to the south-east of the crematorium, the Jewish Prayer House dates to circa 1900. It has a small rectangular plan with 3-bay nave and flanking aisles. A deep base course of bullfaced coursed red sandstone forms the lower section, with the remainder constructed of red brick with smooth red sandstone margins, quoins, skews and skew putts. Lesenes decorate the west elevation. Large openings with modern doors are set into the north and west elevations. A large arrow-loop opening (now blocked) is located to the east elevation, and round windows light the clerestory.

War memorials

A First World War memorial stands to the immediate north-east of the entrance gates. It comprises a polished granite cross with sword inlay surrounded by a stepped wall with panels to the rear carved with regimental insignia.

A South African War memorial, commemorating the fallen of the 1899–1902 Boer War, is also located to the immediate north-east of the entrance gates.