Mortuary Chapels at Cathays Cemetery

Mortuary Chapels at Cathays Cemetery

These mortuary chapels are early Decorated style structures built of snecked rock-faced stone with lighter freestone dressings and a banded slate roof featuring crested ridge tiles. The roofs are finished with coped gables on moulded kneelers.

The complex forms a 5-part symmetrical composition facing east towards the cemetery entrance, centred on a tower with lower connecting links leading to two chapels. The Anglican chapel stands to the north and the non-conformist chapel to the south, their gables forming the outer elements of the composition.

The central tower rises in three stages. At ground level is a doorway with a single order of shafts and foliage capitals, topped by a hood mould with foliage stops to a stilted two-centred arch. The doorway is flanked by open pointed quatrefoils and gabled buttresses. The second stage contains a three-light window with plate tracery, shafted mullions with foliage capitals, and a relieving arch. Another open pointed quatrefoil appears below this window to the lower right. The buttresses either side have stone slab broaches where the tower transitions to octagonal form above. The original shafts that rose from these offsets to the eaves cornice are now missing. A moulded cornice with a Lombard frieze marks this transition. The upper stage is octagonal with single hooded lights featuring foliage stops. The pyramidal metal spire is a later replacement of the original and taller spire, and carries an apex cross.

The connecting links to each chapel contain tall covered ways designed to accommodate hearses, set beneath steep gables. The imposts display a single order of shafts with moulded capitals and two-centred arches with two orders of filleted roll moulding. Above each arch is an open pointed trefoil on the left side and a round trefoil on the right. The left side of each covered way features two-light windows with cushed-headed lights and a shaft to the central mullion. Those on the right side are boarded up. The windows flanking the north covered way are partially obscured by vegetation on the left and feature ogee-headed lights on the right.

Both chapels project at each end and have five-light east windows (boarded up at time of inspection) with angle gabled buttresses. The north chapel's buttresses have attached slender shafts with foliage capitals in the angles between them. The east window of the Anglican chapel has a moulded sill with foliage stops and a hood mould with head stops.

The north wall of the north chapel comprises four unequal bays. A doorway is positioned set back from the east end, contained within a projecting gabled surround that rises above the eaves and is crowned by a carved foliage finial, with low gabled buttresses flanking it. The doorway has a single order of nook shafts with foliage capitals and a two-centred arch incorporating a continuous foliage frieze, with a hood mould featuring angel stops. The double boarded door carries strap hinges with scrollwork. To the right of the doorway are gabled buttresses and two two-light windows under hood moulds. The bay at the west end is blind. The west wall contains a wheel window with a hood mould and sill band, both with foliage stops, and a pointed trefoil below the apex. The south wall is similarly arranged with a blind bay at the west end and two two-light windows, with the link at the east end.

The west side of the link to the north chapel features a boarded window to the left of the doorway and an external stack to the right. The south link has an external flue to the left of the doorway extending only to eaves level, with a single-light window to the right of the gable.

The south chapel is slightly plainer in detail than the north chapel. Its north wall contains two two-light windows (one boarded up at time of inspection) and a blind bay at the west end. The west wall has a wheel window with hood mould and sill band, and a trefoil below the apex. The south wall features two-light windows to the central bays and a doorway at the east end, housed in a projecting gabled surround similar to that on the north chapel. This doorway has a single order of nook shafts with moulded capitals and a hood mould with head stops.

The covered ways incorporate doorways accessing both chapels and the central tower. In the south covered way is a pointed arched doorway (boarded up at time of inspection) to the chapel and a doorway with a shouldered lintel to the tower base. The north side has similar openings, with a boarded door and strap hinges to the tower base.