Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 28/01/2013
TQ 2588 26/168
TQ 2587 28/168
5004
19.3.81
HOOP LANE
Golders Green NWll
Golders Green Crematorium
GV
II
Crematorium: 1901-1939, to designs by Ernest George and Alfred B Yeates; Yeates designed
many minor features after 1920, including walls and connecting arches, as well as the eastern
extension of the cloister; Mitchell and Bridgewater designs are detailed below. Extensive
group of buildings, including chapels, a hall of memory, columbaria, cloisters, and offices,
all linked by a single-storey spine to the south. Largely in a round-arched Lombardic style.
Red and blue brick. Roofs of pantiles. Because of the complexity of the group, the
following description will begin with structures at the west end of the site and move
eastward. The cloister range which faces the south will be described last.
The nucleus of the original complex is found at the west end of the site and consists of
offices, the West Columbarium, and the West Chapel with related structures all dating to
1901-03.
West Columbarium: 1902-03, the interior somewhat altered. Square in plan, with pyramidal
roof; elevations articulated by brick piers; polygonal stair tower and round-arched windows
to clerestory under eaves. Included in this listing is the square, open cloister to the west
which dates to 1913-14. Also included are a series of low utility blocks attached to the
Columbarium.
The range which closes the extreme west court of the site, which consists of a single-storey
range, now a cafe, and a two-storey block, is specifically excluded.
Reception Block: attached to the spine by a round-arched portal with crowstepped parapet;
rectangular in plan and running at right angles to the spine; round-arched recesses to ground
floor on east - and north-facing elevations; five-window range to east and two-window
range to north; structure enlarged by a single-storey porch to the west, and dating to c1930;
of roughly the same date is a stone portal inscribed "Reception" added to the east face.
Included in this listing is the pair of electric light brackets fixed to the north face of the
block.
Loggia, facing the courtyard between the Reception Block and the West.
Chapel: seven bay, round arched, with the centre gap projecting in an aedicule.
West Chapel: architecturally the most prominent element in the group; the nave is
rectangular in plan with round-arched clerestory lights; round-arched entrance porch to the
west, square in plan; campanile and furnace rooms to the east. Interior: marble floor, open
timber roof, panelled dado and red brick walling; early fittings and memorials by George and
Yeates, including bust of Sir Henry Thompson, pioneer of cremation, by W S Frith, 1904.
South windows of 1912. North end below gallery altered, the space below having been at
first a waiting area.
East Chapel: designed by Mitchell and Bridgewater in 1938-9; rectangular in plan, at right
angles to south spine; entrance in north elevation set in a two-storey round-arched recess;
timber-framed entrance hood. Wall with portal, linking East Chapel with Bedford Chapel,
1920-1930, in a neo-Georgian style; round-arched portal with stepped parapet.
Bedford Chapel: single-storey, with hipped roof and gable-facing entrance porch in centre;
rectangular in plan; completed in 1911 for the Duke of Bedford. The south wall abuts the
East Columbarium.
East Columbarium: 1911-13; five storeys; plan a square with rebated corners; galleries in
Hopton Wood stone; each face articulated by a pair of recesses for windows, each finishing
in corbel table; round-arched lights to clerestory; to east a slightly lower block. Ernest
George Columbarium, east of the East Columbarium: Alfred B Yeates, 1922-28, symmetrical
with end towers, small apsidal projection at the centre of the wall between the towers;
external brick diaper work; to the south the end towers project as wings, forming a
courtyard which is closed by a five-bay arcade.
Walls, east of George Columbarium, single storey, pierced by round diaphragm arches; opens
onto an open cloister court, of cl92O-1930; fixed to east wall is a particularly grand
memorial tabernacle in Portland stone, with the inscription, "The Earth and the Spirit
Abideth Forever" in the entablature.
At the east end of the site the Chapel of Memory and Chapel of Memory Columbarium:
1938-9, by Mitchell and Bridgewater; the Chapel rectangular in plan with the long axis
running east-west; the Columbarium rectangular in plan running at right angles to the
Chapel; the Columbarium is taller than the Chapel; to the south, the gable end of the
Columbarium has a three bay, vaulted cloister.
South Elevations and structures:
War Memorial Portico and Lily Pool: adjacent to the West Columbarium, Portland stone,
architect unknown; 1919-20.
Exedral cloister: east end of range, entered from the south, forming the remains of the
pergola laid out with the advice of William Robinson, 1907. Brick wall and piers with tile
coping, the wall returns for some two dozen bays, through no.35, all of which are included
in this listing.
Clositer Ranges: round-arched loggia; some bays spanned by round diaphragm arches, the
majority defined by trusses of wood finishing above a brick pier in the rear wall of the
cloister. The range backing onto the West Columbarium through the Bedford Chapel has
21 bays, with slightly projecting aedicule in the tenth bay.
Chapel of Memory Cloister: nine bays, stepping up the slope of the site in three-bay
sections, each with separate roofs and broken joins; terminating in three-bay vaulted cloister
in the gable end of the Chapel of Memory Columbarium.
The plaques lining the cloister, the open cloisters, the exedra and wall, and the several halls
and chapels are numerous; there are many fine examples of memorial art, scattered in
amongst plainer slabs; the great number make an exact description difficult. Most are worthy
of retention and are therefore included in this listing. Forming a group with the range is the
wall to the north, running along the pavement of Hoop Lane (q.v), and in the grounds to
the south the following Mausolea and sculpture: the Martin Smith Mausoleum (q.v), the
Philipson Mausoleum (q.v) and the sculpture titled "Into the Silent Land" (q.v).
This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 9 February 2017.
