Mortlake Crematorium

Mortlake Crematorium was built on the site of Pink's Farm, once owned by Richard Atwood, a member of a prominent local family of market gardeners.

In 1936, the Mortlake Crematorium Act was passed, making it the first crematorium in the UK to be established under its act of Parliament. The building, designed by Douglas Barton, the borough surveyor for Hammersmith Metropolitan Borough Council, took three years to complete and cost £27,000.

The crematorium was thoughtfully designed with a Garden of Remembrance for the burial or scattering of ashes, along with panels and niches where ashes could be deposited. When it officially opened in January 1939, Lord Horder, then Physician to the King, remarked, "You seem to have eliminated the sombreness of atmosphere which sometimes shrouds buildings such as these."

Mortlake Crematorium remained essentially unchanged in appearance until 1982 when architect Colin Gilbert from Ealing added new gardens between the crematorium and the River Thames. In 2015, a memorial garden was introduced to honour the memory of babies and children, inspired by Doris Stickley's story "Water Bugs and Dragonflies."

In 2012, three new, larger cremators were installed in the crematory to modernize the facility.