Lost buildings: the East Lodge

11 Oct 2025 • Francois Jordaan

In 1874, Fulham Cemetery was extended to Munster Road, with a new gate and lodge designed by J. G. Hall. The lodge has long ago been demolished, probably during the 1950s, but recently the Friends obtained a photo of it.

The architect

Fulham Cemetery was opened in 1865. For years, J. G. Hall was credited as the architect, for example by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner in the London volume of his ‘Buildings of England’ (1952) ¹. Research by the Fulham Cemetery Friends found that this was an error, perpetuated by subsequent historians, and that the cemetery was actually designed by the eminent Victorian architect Sir Arthur Blomfield.

👉 Read more: Who designed Fulham Cemetery?

J. G. Hall was, however, the architect of the east lodge. In 1874 the cemetery was extended to Munster Road. The Fulham Burial Board minutes of 24 April 1873 record that a Mr Hall was commissioned for “a new roadway to the Cemetery with a lodge attached”. Two years later, a John George Hall of 33 Masbro Road, Brook Green, Hammersmith, was admitted as an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and their records indicate that one of the photographs he deposited with the Institute was a photo of the “new entrance” at Fulham Cemetery. ⁵

This is the photo in the archives of Historic England. The description read:

This print was transferred from the library of the R.I.B.A. (Royal Institute of British Architects) in 1936. It is marked 'Cemetary Fulham' [sic] and 'J. G. Hall Archt.' The building shown seems no longer to exist - so it is not clear if Fulham Old Cemetery on Fulham Palace Road, or Fulham New Cemetery on Mortlake Road, Richmond, is intended.

Historic England have made a new scan of the photo for us, and we have licensed it for use on this website (Permission no: 10680). We have informed their cataloguing team of the correct information, and the description on their website has been updated.

Part of the 1865 Ordnance Survey map showing the cemetery

The Ordnance Survey map of London in 1865 shows Fulham Cemetery in its original size.

Part of the 1897 Ordnance Survey map showing the cemetery

The Ordnance Survey map of London in 1897 shows the cemetery in its present size, after the extensions of 1874 (to Munster Road) and 1880 (south).

Fulham Cemetery history 👉
Old maps 👉

The photograph, and the view today

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Use the arrow buttons above to switch between the 1874 photo and the present-day view. You can also swipe on a touchscreen or use the left / right arrow keys on your keyboard.

What are we looking at?

At this point in time the lodge building stood alone – there were no other buildings around. This can be seen most clearly in Stanford's 1878 Map of London, which shows the new roadway and lodge. The surrounding area is all still farmland, apart from the Munster Road Nursery just to the south.

In the photo, we are looking west towards the cemetery from the east side of Munster Road. The photo was taken at a low angle from a farm field on the other side of a hedge (presumably to get the full building in frame), roughly where the Fontain Pharmacy is today (photo / Google Street View). The 2 plinths in the foreground flank the cemetery gates, with a smaller pedestrian gate to the left of them.

1878 Stanford's Map of London

Stanford’s Geological Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1878.
A red dot shows the photographer's location and viewpoint.

The 1897 Ordnance Survey map shows the lodge footprint in a little more detail, consistent with the gable being on the west side. And that is also consistent with the position of the ghost triangle on the present-day wall behind where the lodge once stood.

(This map also shows the Parish Mortuary opposite the lodge, built in 1888-9.)

Lodge design

The east lodge was basically a mirror image of the west lodge by Fulham Palace Road, designed in 1865 by Arthur Blomfield, the main differences visible in the photograph being that it also had a bay window set into the roof, and an extra chimney at the end nearest Munster Road. (Blomfield's lodge has a window on the end nearest Fulham Palace Road, so no chimney there.) It also lacks the Bishop's coat of arms.

Although the building plan is very similar, there are significant differences in style. Hall's lodge has flat, segmental arches with polychrome brickwork above the windows, typical of domestic Gothic-influenced Victorian architecture, whereas Blomfield's windows have pointed arches (echoing those of the chapel), using the medieval symbolism typical of earlier Gothic Revival architecture, and often found in ecclesiastical buildings. Hall's lodge is also of brick construction, typical of everyday urban Victorian architecture, rather than the rustic stonework and quoins of Blomfield's lodge and chapel.

It was smaller than Blomfield's lodge, due to the constraints of the site. The space between the cemetery roadway and the rear boundary was only about 6 metres, whereas the west lodge was about 10 metres deep, also had additional outbuildings behind it, and a larger yard / garden (see 1908 map).

East lodge, designed by J. G. Hall in 1874, and demolished in the 1950s.

West lodge, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1865, and renovated as a private residence in 2014.

Gate design

Hall's design of the cemetery walls and gates bears no resemblance to Blomfield's on Fulham Palace Road. The stocky brick plinths echo the lodge chimneys, unlike the slender stone plinths designed by Blomfield. They seem little changed today, although the cross-shaped metal finials are not present in the 1874 photo so we don't know when they were added. The tops of Hall's plinths also had crenellations that are no longer there today. The gates are of heavy wooden construction with decorative cast iron inserts. We don't know if this matched the west gates.

The present-day walls (photo) look different from the 1874 photo, so they were probably torn down and rebuilt, and the pedestrian gate removed in the process – perhaps at the same time as when the lodge and mortuary were demolished. The wooden gates have been replaced by ones of cast iron.

It is possible that the walls and gate were moved closer to Munster Road, since the 1897 map shows them set back from the road (as can also be seen in the photo). An alternative explanation is that the walls and gate weren't moved, but the sidewalk widened after the closure of the Munster Road Nursery in 1898. (Read more: Elliott grave)

Munster Road may have been widened to the area shown in red. (1897 map)

Cemetery gate on Munster Road, looking east

Cemetery gate on Munster Road, looking west

Cemetery gate on Fulham Palace Road, by Arthur Blomfield

When was the lodge demolished?

The cemetery has lost many of its original Victorian buildings: the east lodge, the Nonconformist chapel, and 2 mortuary buildings (read more: demolished buildings). We don't know the exact dates when they were demolished, but they are all still visible in a 1949 aerial photo, and gone in the next aerial photo we have, in 1966. We know that the second chapel in Margravine Cemetery was demolished in 1953, so Fulham Cemetery's buildings were probably demolished around the same time.

Further research

The Friends will try to find more photos of both lodges. It will be especially helpful to see photos of the west lodge by Fulham Palace Road before its recent renovation, since it's unclear which of its present-day features are original, and which are modern. It's very likely that some local residents will have photos of the lodge, so please contact us if you have a photo to share with us!