HER 34602 DESCRIPTION:-

Listed Building Description:

CHELTENHAM SO92SE BOUNCERS LANE 630-1/2/214 Two Cemetery Chapels, Cheltenham Cemetery (Formerly Listed as: BOUNCERS LANE Cemetery Chapels) GV II 14/12/83

Chapels. c1864, by WH Knight, architect. Builders, Messers Billing and Sons. Coursed rough-faced rubble with ashlar dressings. Hard glazed tiles with fishscale bands to roofs, weathered coping cross finials.

PLAN/EXTERIOR: the Anglican and Non-Conformist chapels form a symmetrical composition with 3-bay link blocks and a central entrance feature capped by a 2-stage tower with stone spire.Decorated Gothic style with carved steps, strings and large 4-light geometric window and a spherical triangle above. Link passages set one bay back and with central bayed breaks which have 2-light windows with quatrefoils to heads. Pierced parapet. Tower has diagonal buttresses and arcaded belfry stage. Broach spire has arched vents with lucarnes and canopied pedestals on the corner. Returns: 4-bay chapels with gablets above foiled oculi above each window. Projecting gabled porches to outer sides have plank doors in trefoil-headed openings.

INTERIOR: retain original joinery and plasterwork, otherwise not inspected.

HISTORICAL NOTE: the competition for the cemetery was won by Knight in 1862. Despite the mid C20 additions to the rear, this survives as the finest Victorian cemetery chapel in England, enhanced by its parkland setting. Listing NGR: SO 97161 23092. {Source Work 2378.}

"Chapels circa 1864, by WH Knight, architect. Builders, Messers Billing and Sons. Coursed rough-faced rubble with ashlar dressings. Hard glazed tiles with fishscale bands to roofs, weathered coping cross finials.

PLAN/EXTERIOR: the Anglican and Non-Conformist chapels form a symmetrical composition with 3-bay link blocks and a central entrance feature capped by a 2-stage tower with stone spire. Decorated Gothic style with carved steps, strings and large 4-light geometric window and a spherical triangle above. Link passages set one bay back and with central bayed breaks which have 2-light windows with quatrefoils to heads. Pierced parapet. Tower has diagonal buttresses and arcaded belfry stage. Broach spire has arched vents with lucarnes and canopied pedestals on the corner. Returns: 4-bay chapels with gablets above foiled oculi above each window. Projecting gabled porches to outer sides have plank doors in trefoil-headed openings.

INTERIOR: retain original joinery and plasterwork, otherwise not inspected.

HISTORICAL NOTE: the competition for the cemetery was won by Knight in 1862. Despite the mid 20th century additions to the rear, this survives as the finest Victorian cemetery chapel in England, enhanced by its parkland setting. (1)

In August 1861 the Board initiated a competition for the design of the new cemetery, with a premium of 40 guineas for the best design and 20 guineas for the second best (ibid, 1 August 1861). The competition was won by the Cheltenham architect W H Knight with a design for a linked pair of gothic chapels connected by a porte-cochère placed beneath a dramatic spire (ibid, 31 July 1862).

The linked pair of stone, Gothic-style chapels (listed grade II) is situated towards the centre of the site, circa 270m north-east of the inner entrance. The dramatic, symmetrical composition comprises a central porte-cochère, now (2001) enclosed within late-C20 timber and glass doors, placed beneath a tower with louvered belfry openings surmounted by a tall broach spire. From the porte-cochère passages extend north and south to give access to the chapels. The passages are lit by Gothic-style windows with paired lights surmounted by quatrefoil tracery; each passage has a centrally placed canted bay window. Each chapel is lit by gothic windows with further clerestory lights placed in gables along the north and south facades. A gabled porch is placed on the outer side of each chapel. To the south-east of the south chapel is a single-storey Gothic-style stone crematorium building, while to the east of the porte-cochère is a late-20th century single-storey, flat-roofed office building.

The chapels were designed by W H Knight in 1862, and were constructed by Messrs Billing and Sons in 1864. The chapels were restored and modernised in 1995, and today (2001), the south chapel, formerly the Nonconformist chapel, serves as the crematorium chapel. W H Knight's chapel building has been described as 'the finest Victorian cemetery chapel in England' (listed building description). (2)

The crematorium at Cheltenham cemetery was first planed in 1937 and in 1938 an extension, designed by Gilbert Gould Marsland, was added to the south chapel. The crematorium is built of Farmington stone to match the 1864 buildings. (3). {Source Work 4249.}