Lavender Hill Non-Conformist Cemetery Chapel - London Historic Buildings Trust

Lavender Hill Cemetery Chapel, Enfield

In partnership with

Costs

£35,500

London Historic Buildings Trust (LHBT) is working with Enfield Council to identify a viable future use for the Lavender Hill Non-Conformist Chapel in Enfield. A conservation-accredited architect has been appointed to lead a professional team including a structural engineer, MEP consultant, building surveyor and business planner to undertake an Options Appraisal for the site. LHBT will be project managing the programme on behalf of site owners Enfield Council.

With support from the Enfield Society and local stakeholders, the project will engage the community through a range of events during 2024/5 to help inform the development of a financially viable and sustainable project that reflects an understanding of the site’s significance as well as meet local needs.

The project, which has been generously funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Enfield Society and the Pilgrim Trust, will also provide opportunities for local people to visit the chapel and find out more about the history of this site.

To find out more about the project and sign up for updates about future events please email the Project Manager, Lisa Rigg at lisa.rigg@londonhistoricbuildings.org.uk

Options Appraisal

Enfield Council have set up a Project Steering Group with representatives of stakeholders from the local community to oversee the project development.

The Professional Team will identify appropriate and sustainable short and long-term solutions for the Chapel that respond to identified local need with the aim of removing the building from the Heritage-at-Risk register. The Options Appraisal will:

Establish the Significance of the site through primary historic research and community consultation
Establish the current condition of the Chapel and associated repair needs and costs for bringing the building back into use.
Explore options for the repair and future use of the Chapel, identifying a preferred option and a suitable design solution
Bring together the findings from surveys, stakeholder consultation and the wider project team (Structural Engineer, Quantity Surveyor, MEP Consultant, Business Planner and Community Consultant) a report to help inform its future reuse

Events

OPEN HOUSE FESTIVAL 2024

Open days and meet the architect – Sunday 15th and 22nd September 2024, 12pm to 3.30pm

We are opening the doors to the Non-conformist Chapel as part of the Open House Festival 2024. Come along and have a look inside, and find out more about the fascinating history of the area and plans to repair and reuse this building for local benefit. Drop in. No booking required.

Heritage Walk – Sunday 15th September, 2pm to 3.30pm

Join Joe Studman, a local history guide and Enfield resident, on a FREE walk through Lavender Hill Cemetery to discover Enfield’s late Victorian and Edwardian history. You will meet the Great and Good as well as characters from Enfield’s civic and business life on this relaxed heritage walk. Booking required. Meet: Lavender Hill Cemetery (main entrance) at 2pm. Duration: 90 minutes. Click here to book a place and for access information.

Address: Lavender Hill Non-Conformist Cemetery Chapel (west side), 72 Cedar Road, Enfield, EN2 0TH

Mailing List

Would you like to join our mailing list to be kept up-to-date on the project? Please sign up here:

https://forms.office.com/e/BREcjQ2uZi

Public Consultation

On behalf of Enfield Council we will be consulting residents, schools, community organisations and businesses on the future of the chapel.

Phase 1: 11th September to 2nd October

An open public survey will seek to understand how the cemetery is currently being used and explore ideas for future reuse.

Please also come along to our Open House drop-in to have a look at the building, find out more about the project and share your ideas for how it could be reused.

Phase I of the public consultation will feed into the Options Appraisal process and help shape concept ideas that will be developed by the Professional Team in October 2024.

Community Consultation – LIVE!

Our Community Consultation survey is now live: https://forms.office.com/e/zew2sE81Gk

Have your Say! We would love to hear from you on your thoughts for how this building could be reused.

If you’re a Business, Charity or Local Organisation we would also like to hear from you too. Please complete our survey with your ideas for this building : https://forms.office.com/e/0U664u3vgp

Phase 2: mid-November 2024 to early December

Once the results of the Phase 1 consultation have been reviewed, the Professional Team will develop a set of Concept Ideas for the future reuse of the Chapel. We will then seek feedback on these initial ideas to refine the options in conjunction with other building investigations and assessments. All this information will feed into the identification of a preferred option.

If you would like further information about the public consultation please contact Lisa Rigg (Project Manager). Email: lisa.rigg@londonhistoricbuildings.org.uk

The History of the Site

The Lavender Hill Non-Conformist Cemetery Chapel was built in 1870-1 by Thomas J Hill for the Enfield Burial Board who opened the original nine-acre site in 1872. The chapel is described as: ‘Finely sited at the top of Lavender Hill with views to the North.’ Built by J and J Field in a High-Victorian Decorated Gothic style, this chapel, located on the southside of the cemetery, has a mirroring Anglican counterpart to the east.

The Non-conformist Chapel has an apse, a two-stage bell tower with a broached spire and a central porched entrance. The rock-faced stone and ashlar dressings, pointed-arched openings with decoratively stopped hoodmoulds, traceried windows, leaf-decorated cornice to the eaves and board doors with decorative iron hinges contribute to help form a picturesque building, that has the potential to provide attractive accommodation for community benefit.

The chapel is situated in a 28-acre cemetery described in Pevsner as a ‘Funeral landscape of mature conifers, with some early Monuments picturesquely placed at the junctions of paths: William Buzsard †1877, urn on tall plinth in red granite; Benjamin Godfrey †1872, Celtic cross; James Whatman Bosanquet †1877, big chest tomb.’

This historic cemetery, which lies within the Metropolitan Green Belt (est. 1938), was locally listed in 2018 for its social, aesthetic and historic value as both a Victorian designed landscape and an open space that contributes to local people’s health and wellbeing. Originally, the cemetery was established to deal with the crisis of city churchyards being ‘quite simply, filled to overflowing’ as outlined by Mellor and Parson in London Cemeteries: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer (2023). The cemetery was laid out in response to this and the nineteenth-century Public Parks movement’s aim to utilise green spaces to improve health and wellbeing due to the overcrowding experienced in rapidly growing industrialised towns and cities.

The Site Today

The chapel was listed in 1990, but it has been unoccupied for many years and from a recent visual inspection is continuing to deteriorate and is at risk. We are currently working with Enfield Council and the Enfield Society to identify how its long-term future can be secured. There are significant opportunities to develop solutions which link to wider borough strategies and that collaborate with local stakeholders.

Our Partners

The Enfield Society – have been supporting our projects in many ways, including ongoing management of the Former Charity Schools’ garden. At Lavender Hill they will be supporting us with heritage and nature walks. More to follow in the early Autumn …