Mitcham Road Cemetery and Croydon Crematorium

Opened by the Burial Board in 1897, Croydon Cemetery was made as an overspill to Queen's Road Cemetery (q.v.) in response to the growing need for more burial spaces. The cemetery has been enlarged twice, in 1935 and 1937, the later enlargement when Croydon Crematorium was built. An axial drive from Mitcham Road entrance runs through the simply planned cemetery comprising a grid of paths dotted with a few specimen trees including Deodar Cedar, Acacia, Corsican Pine, Lebanon Cedar. Shrubs include Laurel, Holly and Yew. A double avenue of Lime runs down the north-west (1935) extension. Buildings include the tile-hung lodge, brick Gothic chapel and crematorium, and the cemetery has brick walls with railings and stone dressings. The north east part of the cemetery around the crematorium has a more elaborate layout with formal gardens, pond, winding paths and drives.

Croydon Crematorium was built in 1937, later extended in 1962 when the east chapel was added. Hugh Meller comments: 'both buildings rise above the customary low standard of crematorium architecture, especially the earlier version in an austere simple Gothic design. Individual taste is allowed to flourish in the cloisters where pink and green onyx memorial tablets have sprouted like a nasty rash'.

Noteworthy memorials include the Lanfranc Memorial, a large paved area with raised flower bed and black granite cross to 34 boys and 2 masters from Lanfranc School killed in an air crash in 1961. Captain Leslie Thomas's memorial has a stone model of a 1937 monoplane. Derek Bentley, executed in 1953 for his part in the murder of a policeman, was buried here in 1966; he was subsequently cleared in 1998 and by special permission his headstone is inscribed with the words 'a victim of British Justice'. Others buried here include composer William Hurlstone (1876-1906); Sir Charles Flynn (1884-1938), Deputy Chairman of Customs and Excise 1936-38; Tom Norman, 'the Silver King' who managed the Elephant Man; and Frederick George Creed, the inventor of the teleprinter. There is an original air raid shelter on the site.