Inventory Site Record

* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens

Golders Green Crematorium, the first purpose-designed crematorium 'within easy driving distance of London', was established by the London Cremation Society in 1902 on land it purchased in 1900. The buildings, designed by Sir Ernest George and Alfred Yeates, were developed piecemeal from 1902 until the late 1920s, with the East Chapel by Mitchell and Bridgewater and the Philipson Mausoleum by Edwin Lutyens added in 1938. The grounds are much like they were when first laid out by William Robinson. Open lawns face the Cloister, at one end of which is a rectangular lily pond and War Memorial of 1919/20. Woodland gardens have serpentine paths throughout and to the rear is a small water garden. Among the sculptural features is a bronze sculpture by Henry Pegram, now in the Gertrude Jekyll garden. Many well-known people have been cremated here.

Previous / Other name:

Hoop Lane Cemetery

Site location:

Hoop Lane, Golders Green

Postcode:

NW11 7NL

What 3 Words:

stops.trim.focal

Type of site:

Cemetery

Borough:

Barnet

Open to public?

Yes

Opening times:

grounds open daily: 9am-4pm (winter)/6pm (summer)

Special conditions:

Facilities:

toilets, café (being renovated July 2000)

Events:

Public transport:

Tube: Golders Green (Northern). Bus 82, 102, 260, H2.

Citymapper    
Google Map    
streetmap.co.uk

Research updated:

01/04/2002

Last minor changes:

19/07/2023

Please check with the site owner or manager for latest news.

Site on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens, for Register Entry see https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

Golders Green Crematorium was the first purpose-designed crematorium 'within easy driving distance of London', and was established by the London Cremation Society in 1902, with buildings designed by Sir Ernest George and Alfred Yeates and the grounds laid out by William Robinson. Land was purchased in 1900 for £6,000, buildings cost £21,000. The long informal range of red brick buildings, linked by a long south cloister walk onto to the grounds, are all in an urbanely secular Lombardic style, and were developed piecemeal from c.1902 onwards. The West Columbarium dates from 1902/3 with the entrance gates, wall and Martin Smith Mausoleum dating from 1904/5; the West Chapel and Mausoleum by Sir Ernest George (1905), the East Columbarium and Duke of Bedford's Chapel both date from 1911, with the Cloister completed in 1916, the Ernest George Columbarium by Alfred Yeates completed in 1928; the East Chapel by Mitchell and Bridgewater and the Philipson Mausoleum by Lutyens both in 1938.

The gardens, whose general layout is much the same today, were laid out on a wedge-shaped site by William Robinson, with open lawns facing the cloister, at one end of which is a rectangular lily pond in front of the War Memorial in the form of a stone Ionic temple, erected in 1919/20. Woodland gardens lead to areas with roses, shrubs, flowering trees with serpentine paths throughout. To the rear of the site is a small water garden comprising two pools with rockworks and a hump backed bridge, surrounded by birch trees and flower-beds. The Gertrude Jekyll garden contains a bronze sculpture, 'Into the Silent Land' (1924) by Henry Pegram, which was presented by the Royal Society for Arts in 1937, originally on the lawn. A bronze statue of Chanshyam Das Birla (1894-1983) is sited under a willow tree, facing the range of buildings beyond the meadowland 'dispersal area' for ashes. In the numerous garden areas each shrub and rose-bush commemorates a cremation and is labelled accordingly; planting has therefore been piecemeal and non-historic without reference to an overall colour scheme, and with random grouping and clashing colour-schemes in many areas.

Those cremated here include Sir Henry Irving (d.1905), W S Gilbert (d.1911), Bram Stoker (d.1912), Charles Rennie Mackintosh (d.1928), Anna Pavlova (d.1931), Rudyard Kipling (d.1936), Sigmund Freud (d.1939), Sir Edwin Lutyens (d.1944), H G Wells (d.1946), G B Shaw (d.1946), Kathleen Ferrier (d.1953), Sir Alexander Fleming (d.1955), Vaughan Williams (d.1958), T S Eliot (d.1965), Vivien Leigh (d.1967), Joe Orton (d.1967), Kingsley Amis (d.1995), Ronnie Scott (d.1996), Mark Bolan (d.1977) and Amy Winehouse (d.2011).

The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.

Sources consulted:

NHLE Register - see list. Hugh Meller & Brian Parsons,'London Cemeteries, An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer', 4th edition (The History Press, 2008); Bridget Cherry & Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 4: North (Penguin, 1998); C. Brooks, English Historic Cemeteries, a theme study, English Heritage (1994).

Grid ref:

TQ252879 (525350,187933)

Size in hectares:

4.86 (EH 5.5)

Site ownership:

The London Cremation Company

Site management:

The London Cremation Company

Date(s):

1900-02, late C20th

Designer(s):

Grounds: William Robinson. Buildings: Sir Ernest George/Alfred Yeates; Edwin Lutyens.

Listed structures:

LBll*: Philipson Mausoleum. LBII: Crematorium buildings as a group, including War Memorial; Entrance gates, wall, Martin Smith Mausoleum.

On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens:

Yes

NHLE grade:

Grade I

Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965:

No

Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931:

No

Local Authority Data

The information below is taken from the relevant Local Authority's planning legislation, which was correct at the time of research but may have been amended in the interim. Please check with the Local Authority for latest planning information.

On Local List:

No

In Conservation Area:

Yes

Conservation Area name:

Hampstead Garden Suburb

Tree Preservation Order:

Not known

Nature Conservation Area:

No

Green Belt:

No

Metropolitan Open Land:

Yes

Special Policy Area:

No

Other LA designation:

Article 4 Direction

Golders Green Crematorium, July 2000. Photo S Williams

Click a photo to enlarge.