Mortlake Crematorium

Mortlake Crematorium is a crematorium in Kew,^[1] near its boundary with Mortlake, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It opened in 1939, next to Mortlake Cemetery.

Mortlake Crematorium
General information
Type	Crematorium
Location	Kew Meadow Path Richmond TW9 4EN England United Kingdom Area: Kew, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames[1]
Construction started	1936
Completed	1939
Opening	1939
Cost	£27,000[2]
Owner	London boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames
Management	Mortlake Crematorium Board
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Douglas Barton[2]
Developer	Hammersmith Metropolitan Borough Council
Website
www.mortlakecrematorium.org
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Mortlake Crematorium
Designated	5 May 2011
Reference no.	1400834

The crematorium serves the boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames in the west and south-west of London. It is managed by a board made up of three elected councillors from each of these four boroughs.^[2]

Citing it as "a rare example" of Art Deco design in the borough, Richmond upon Thames Council has described it as "a building of exceptional quality and character".^[3] Environmentalist Colin Hines describes it as "probably the most undiscovered deco treasure in London".^[4] Hilary Grainger, writing in Encyclopedia of Cremation, describes the architectural style as Italianate and the building as having "beautiful cloisters with discrete brick detailing".^[5] It has been a Grade II listed building since 2011, being assessed by Historic England as having "a distinctive Art Deco design that survives little altered in a compact and practical composition".^[6]

Location

The crematorium is on Kew Meadow Path, Townsmead Road,^[7] Kew.^[1] It is situated on the south bank of the River Thames by Chiswick Bridge and in Clifford Avenue, adjoining Mortlake Cemetery (Hammersmith New Cemetery) in the angle of Mortlake Road (which forms part of the A205, the South Circular Road) and the A316 road. The nearest train stations are Kew Gardens (for London Underground and London Overground trains) and Mortlake (for South Western Railway services).

History

Garden of Remembrance in the crematorium's grounds

Glass sculpture in the Garden of Remembrance

Garden of Remembrance, Babies & Children Garden

Mortlake Crematorium was built on the site of Pink's Farm, which had belonged to Richard Atwood, whose family were prominent market gardeners in the area.^[8]

Mortlake Crematorium Act 1936
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to constitute a joint board comprising representatives of the Hammersmith Borough Council and the corporations of Acton Barnes and Richmond to authorise the Board to provide and maintain a crematorium and for other purposes.
Citation	26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8. c. xxi
Dates
Royal assent	31 July 1936

It was licensed in 1936 under the Mortlake Crematorium Act 1936, thereby becoming the first to be established under its own act of Parliament.^[2] Designed by Douglas Barton,^[6] borough surveyor to Hammersmith Metropolitan Borough Council,^[6] the building was constructed in three years at a cost of £27,000.^[2] It was also equipped with a Garden of Remembrance for the burial or scattering of ashes, and also offered panels and niches in which ashes could be deposited. When the facility was finally opened in January 1939 by Lord Horder, the then Physician to the King, he said: "You seem to have eliminated the sombreness of atmosphere which sometimes shrouds buildings such as these".^[2][4] After that, there was very little change in Mortlake Crematorium's outward appearance until 1982, when Colin Gilbert, an architect from Ealing, designed additional gardens between the crematorium and the River Thames.^[2] Since 2015 the crematorium has had a memorial garden dedicated to the memory of babies and children, based on Doris Stickley's story "Water Bugs and Dragonflies".^[9][10]

Three new, larger cremators were installed in the crematory in 2012.^[11]

Notable cremations

Among those cremated here were:

• Trevor Baylis (1937–2018), inventor, whose body was cremated in a novelty coffin fashioned as the wind-up radio that he had invented^[12]
• Richard Beckinsale (1947–1979), actor^[13]
• Frederick Bentham (1911–2001), theatre lighting designer and engineer^[14]
• Tarka Cordell (1966–2008), musician^[15]
• Tommy Cooper (1921–1984), comedian and magician^[16]
• Sir Robin Day (1923–2000), political broadcaster and commentator^[16]
• Roger Delgado (1918–1973), actor, most famous for playing The Master in Doctor Who^[17]
• Sheila Dunn (1940–2004), stage and television actress^[18]
• Kenny Everett (1944–1995), radio DJ and television entertainer^[19]
• Edd Gould (1988–2012), animator, voice actor and creator of Eddsworld^[20]
• Charles Hawtrey (1914–1988), comedy actor^[21]
• Valerie Hobson (1917–1998), actress^[22]
• John Hutchinson (1884–1972), botanist, taxonomist and author^[23]
• Arthur Koestler (1905–1983), author^[24]
• James Edgar Leach (1892–1958), Victoria Cross recipient, World War I^[25]
• Charles Lightoller (1874–1952), second officer of the RMS Titanic^[26]
• Lord Longford (Frank Pakenham) (1905–2001), politician and social reformer^[27]
• Ernestine Mills (1871–1959), artist, writer and suffragette^[28]
• Kirsty MacColl (1959–2000), singer-songwriter^[29]
• Jimmy Perry (1923–2016), actor and scriptwriter, who devised and co-wrote the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army^[30]
• Christopher Price (1967–2002), radio and television broadcaster^[31]
• John Profumo (1915–2006), politician, Secretary of State for War^[32]
• Sir Michael Redgrave (1908–1985), actor, author and director^[16]
• Gordon Reid (1939–2003), Scottish actor^[33]
• Prince Alexander Romanov (1929–2002), member of the Russian Imperial Family^[27]
• Dame Maggie Smith (1934–2024), actress^[34]
• Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt (1915–2003), businessman and husband of Margaret Thatcher^[35]
• Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (1925–2013), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom^{[35][36][37][38][39]}
• Alexander Trocchi (1925–1984), Scottish novelist^[40]
• Stephen Ward (1912–1963), osteopath and artist who was one of the central figures in the Profumo affair^[41]
• Kit West (1936–2016), special effects artist, known for his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Return of the Jedi^[42]

World War II memorial

Seventy-nine Commonwealth service personnel of World War II were cremated here and their names are listed on a screen wall memorial erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in the adjoining Mortlake Cemetery (Hammersmith New Cemetery).^[43] They include England rugby international Vivian Davies (1899–1941), who was a Captain in the Royal Artillery.^[44]