Many will have attended a service at Mortlake Crematorium for a loved one. It may seem a surprising place for a visit otherwise, but it is an interesting spot, and perhaps one where we should take a more detailed look before we need to use it.

It was licensed in 1936 under the Mortlake Crematorium Act 1936, thereby becoming the first to be established under its own Act of Parliament. The building was designed by Douglas Barton, an employee of the Hammersmith Metropolitan Borough Council. It was constructed in three years at a cost of £27,000. It was equipped with a Garden of Remembrance for the scattering of ashes.

The facility was finally opened in January 1939 by Lord Horder, the then physician to the King. Mortlake Crematorium’s outward appearance changed little over the following years until 1982, when Colin Gilbert, an architect from Ealing, designed additional gardens on the area of land between the crematorium and the river Thames.

In 2011 English Heritage listed the Crematorium as Grade 2. The citation stated that it was cleverly designed, with a variety of spaces, pleasing elevations and arcaded cloisters. The chapel interior is impressive spatially. See the original design below to which pillars have now been added.

The building has a distinctive Art Deco design that is little altered today.

Natasha Bradshaw has been the Crematorium Manager for fifteen years. She is a mine of information and very happy to organise tours around the building, the chapel and a behind the scenes look at the ovens! There are on average 2200 services in a year and they can do thirteen in a day. Staff can engage in a Cremator Technician Training Scheme.

On a tour you can see the process from movement of the coffin from the catafalque to the use of the ovens. At the end of the service the coffin will be rolled to a room behind the chapel. Unless the family wish to see the coffin going into an oven, it may not be burnt immediately. The ovens need to be heated to temperatures up to 900 degrees C, so several ovens may be heated at a time. A body must be incinerated within 72 hours. From the oven the ashes will go to a cremulator for further disintegration. Bones may be managed separately and for some Asian cultures retained.

Metal parts which do not incinerate, like pacemakers, articificial joints or prosthetics are removed and also treated separately. They will be sent to a company in the Netherlands, which specialises in crushing them into metal which can be used for other purposes. The Crematorium receives funds in return which it then passes to charities.

The average time from death to service is fourteen to twenty one days but this is not because of delays at the crematorium, rather because of the preparation of plans for the service, printing orders of service and arranging the attendance of people from a distance. Time to say goodbye sung by Andrea Bocelli is the favourite tune!

Why is the cremation such an emotional event, given that the body will probably have been dead for fourteen to twenty one days? It is the last time you see the body, albeit in a coffin, plus a reminder of past memories.

Direct or Pure cremation is a new service, currently being heavily trailed on TV adverts, which offers to collect a body and return the ashes. Not quite the service you would get at Mortlake, it sounds a bit like a dumping ground for unwanted relatives!

Many famous people have been cremated at Mortlake, among them: Baroness Margaret and Sir Denis Thatcher, Sir Michael Redgrave and Dame Maggie Smith, Lord Longford, Sir Robin Day, John Profumo, Tommy Cooper, Kenny Everett and Charles Hawtrey.

Mortlake Crematorium supports and is supported by the Good Grief Trust www.thegoodgrieftrust.org , which has a website signposting immediate bereavement support.

For more information see www.Mortlakecrematorium.org or phone 020 8876 8056. Natasha has been interviewed for a podcast Living with Dying by Dilys Morgan which can be viewed at Episode 48: Natasha Bradshaw . See also www.angelanddove.com