Private Perspectives: The Architecture and Design of Scottish Crematoria 1975-2011

The building of Scotland’s 27 operational crematoria fell into three distinct phases, the first being the pioneering work of the private sector between 1895 and 1939. In keeping with the governing agenda of Improvement, which promoted the harnessing of ‘material betterment to secular utopian ideals’, the post war period witnessed local authorities assuming responsibility for crematoria. An interregnum in building followed in the 1970s with the cessation of large-scale reconstruction programmes in Scotland. This was mirrored by a halt in the building of crematoria. By the late 1980s changes were afoot as global capitalization began to encourage a move away from the morality of social building types. The professional context for architects widened accordingly as new opportunities arose - exemplified by the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 and the city being declared the European City of Culture in 1990.
In many respects crematorium buildings and the pattern of their patronage represent, in microcosm, the wider social and architectural developments taking place in Scotland. In concentrating on the final phase of crematorium building between 1975 and 2011 including the role played by individual companies such as The Westerleigh Group, this paper seeks to explore the implications for design that has resulted from the substantial shift from public to private cremation provision in Scotland.