MEMORIALS 099
flourished during the reign of Queen Victoria; often established by enterprising entrepreneurs, many were beautifully landscaped, offering an opportunity for the newly rich industrialists, merchants and middle classes to demonstrate their wealth and taste with ornate carvings, temples and mausoleums honouring the departed. By the late 20th century most were horribly overgrown and ramshackle, needing to be taken on by local authorities, who have had even fewer resources to maintain them over the
past two decades. Luckily, the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has been able to step in, and has supported nearly 290 churchyard and cemetery projects worth over £46m. Tis investment in repairs and refurbishments is possibly more about celebrating what these important civic landmarks contribute to the living, in community and environmental benefits, as it is about paying respects to the dead. As Hannah Dolby, NLHF media and public relations manager, says: ‘We support cemeteries for their
PROJECT INFO
Client Guildford Borough Council
Architects Haverstock
Area Gross internal area 748 sq m
Construction cost £10m
Completed March 2020
Contractor Buxton Building Contractors
Structural and civic engineers Elliott Wood Partnership
Landscape Architect Plincke
cultural, social and natural heritage values. Tey provide amazing archives of who used to live in a place, are historically important landscapes often by famous designers, and urban nature oases too. Many effectively work as parks, providing much needed green spaces for quiet relaxation and fresh air.’
Among the significant restoration projects recently completed or under way is London Road, Coventry’s spectacular cemetery designed by Sir Joseph Paxton – the legendary architect/engineer of the Crystal Palace – which enjoyed improved landscaping and restoration of its small, exquisite chapels for Coventry’s year as City of Culture 2020. Belfast, Bristol (Arnos Vale), Stirling’s Old Town Cemetery and many more are currently being revitalised. In London, says Dolby, the focus has been on the ‘magnificent seven’ (West Norwood, Highgate, Nunhead, Abney Park, Brompton, Kensal Green and Tower Hamlets), the most spectacular of the 19th century cemeteries, filled with the bodies of the rich and famous.
West Norwood is midway through a major renovation, thanks to a generous £5.1m of NLHF funding. Clearing decades of weeds and brambles is just one small part of the scheme. Tere has been a major intervention to improve drainage, and restoration of the 12 listed monuments situated within its walls, including a remarkable Greek temple, whose ornamental interiors are being brought back to life, while the building itself will be made ready for regular community use.
constructed of timber and clad in zinc. These represent the chapel and crematory. At the centre of the sequence is Remembrance Court, a space for reflection, whether solitary or in small groups, separated from the main building by a reflective pool, which acts as a “pin wheel” separating arriving, departing and visitors. The chapel offers a protected
courtyard landscape, with an exposed, engineered glulam timber roof structure and natural light provided by a high clerestory window.
The catafalque and cofin sit inside the chapel, under a lower canopy “to provide intimacy” enclosed within walls of warm oak cladding. That treatment extends into the chapel lobby, ofice reception area and external canopies. Construction was phased to
allow the crematorium to remain open. A truly collaborative client and design team attitude extended to the contractor, and facilitated the building being finished on time and within budget.
Stoke Newington’s Abney Park Cemetery is also undergoing improvements, not just to its Egyptian-style lodges but also the installation of a ground source heat pump to power the chapel and crematorium – the first ever UK cemetery to gain such a sustainable icon. Te pandemic brought home only too vividly how widespread secularisation has stripped us of the traditional rituals and ceremonies that can help make the passing of a loved one feel more meaningful. And in this, London practice Haverstock has made its mark with several award-winning projects that create a more welcoming and flexible environment for mourners of all denominations. Lea Fields was the first to put them on the map – an elegantly contemporary, sculptural sequence of spaces in brick, timber and bronze has been set into a park landscape, with the landscape playing an integral part in the design. In the multiple awards that followed, one of the aspects that was singled out for praise was the building’s care in avoiding mixing between groups of mourners – the last thing the bereaved want to feel is that your lost loved one is just one more item on the day’s conveyor belt of cremation candidates.
In Guildford Crematorium (see case study), they took this one step further in specifying a variety of spaces for solitary solace and contemplation, in small or larger groups. Trough these case studies here, and other contemporary examples, we can hope to see an exciting new era in the life of monuments and spaces of commemoration.
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