SEnine
a plan for a joint crematorium ‘having regard to the present emergency’ but no decision could be made ‘as there was a war on’. Later that year on 15 October a bomb caused severe damage to the apse of the chapel rendering the building unsafe. Further damage was infl icted by a fl ying bomb in October 1944.
War damage repairs took some years to complete. The work included re-building the apse with three new stained glass windows above the altar representing Faith, Peace and Hope. Other stained glass windows were replaced, roof trusses and timbers repaired, the roof retiled, the wood block fl oors in the chapel and vestries were cleaned and re-polished, and wood blocks in the covered way were relayed. Repairs costing £6,575 were carried out by the Borough Council under the direction of the Borough Engineer Mr WH Gimson, OBE. The re-ordered chapel was re-dedicated by the Bishop of Woolwich, the Rt Rev RW Stannard on 27 September 1952 in the presence of local clergy and ministers, aldermen, councillors and offi cials.
The scheme for a shared crematorium with seven local boroughs was fi nally agreed during the early 1950s. Following construction work the crematorium was opened on 16 July 1956 by the Earl of Verulam, President of the Cremation Society. A service of dedication for the chapel, to accommodate sixty people, and garden of remembrance was conducted by the Lord Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Rev BF Simpson. Added to these facilities in 1968 was the Book of Remembrance Shrine being a circular building with eight vertical stained glass
windows. A second crematorium chapel, with seating for ninety people, was added in 1975 and designed by Greenwich Council’s Architects Department. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Woolwich, the Rt Rev Michael Marshall just before Christmas that year and came into service the following January. The biggest threat to the viability
HISTORIC ELTHAM
grass verge in front of the cemetery walls disappeared under a slip road which necessitated a new vehicle entrance from the south, via Crown Woods Way, whose road junction with Rochester Way was closed.
The Eltham Crematorium Joint Committee commissioned the construction of a Flower Pavilion, where loved- ones can be remembered after cremation, which
was
Removal of railings for the new boundary wall by the wide verge at Rochester Way, 1983
and peace of the cemetery was the construction of a Rochester Way Relief Road with land earmarked as part of a six lane highway. The eventual scheme for a four lane realigned A2 necessitated removing less cemetery land than was originally envisaged. Between the Rochester Way cemetery entrance and Riefi eld Road most of the external brick walls were removed; the railings were retained and expertly fi xed to the new walls and the completed work received an Eltham Society Heritage Award in 1984. Some of the surviving oak trees from the old Crown Woods Lane had to be removed and its wide replacement
opened in D ecember 1989 although offi cially opened on 7 April 1990 by the mayors of Bexley, Dartford and Greenwich whose boroughs now comprise the joint board.
Vehicle congestion at the Crown Woods Way egress was eased in 2000 by the inauguration of a one-way access route. This saw the construction of an additional roadway and the breaching of the boundary wall where new brick pillars with matching gates, to the original 1930s design, came complete with a replica Woolwich Borough Council coat or arms.
The crematorium has recently been updated but space for burials is fast being fi lled which will put pressure on the authorities to fi nd future alternative accommodation.
to ch
The empty eastern section, from the chapel tower in 1977, before Rochester Way was upgraded Volunteer and help out
Woolwich Borough Council coat of arms on new gate, Crown Woods Way, 2000
All pictures are from the John Kennett collection 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40