Help us highlight the plight of cemetery chapels
Garden cemeteries were a nineteenth century phenomenon and at their heart were usually two chapels; one Anglican and one non-conformist. Yet these architecturally interesting buildings have been largely forgotten and too many are now boarded up or derelict.
A roofless cemetery chapel
No-one knows the scale of the problem; no-one even knows exactly how many chapels there are. What is known is that up half of all the green space in some local authorities is taken up by cemeteries, and yet they are barely used, and the chapels which were designed to be attractive and accessible to the whole community are often defunct.
The Victorian Society is now calling for help from the public to document the state of these chapels as part of a national campaign. It's asking people to go out and explore their local cemetery and report back on the condition of the chapels there.
'We know many cemetery chapels are in a poor state, but we need to know how many and how bad their condition is' said Dr Ian Dungavell, Director of the Victorian Society. ‘In some suburban areas the cemetery chapels may be the only architecturally significant buildings in the neighbourhood, and it's important they survive.'
The leading cemetery designer of the Victorian age was John Claudius Loudon. He envisaged that when the cemeteries were full they would close as burial grounds and re-open as public parks.
As part of the survey the Victorian Society is asking how people think the cemetery chapels should be used in order to secure their future.
You can complete our questionnaire online or download a copy to send back to us.
You can see some of the cemetery chapels we know about on the map. Click on a blue marker to see the chapel. Click + to zoom in for an aerial view.
Tuesday 17 February, 2009
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