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Innovative burial chambers free up space at London cemetery
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More than 400 spaces have been created at a South London cemetery using innovative new burial techniques.
With a lack of available burial space a major issue across London, Lambeth Council has taken steps to ensure that residents continue to have a range of choices when they suffer bereavement.
The creation of a new burial section at Streatham Cemetery will allow 400 extra burial spaces on land that originally housed glasshouses. The area has been sensitively converted into a peaceful and attractive space.
The new concrete burial chambers offer an attractive option for the bereaved, and will ensure grave space remains available in Lambeth for several more years.
The continuing availability of grave space is particularly important for certain faiths, which forbid cremation.
Lambeth’s new burial section was officially opened with an official ribbon cutting cemetery and a demonstration by Gillman & Son funeral directors of an interment in one of the burial chambers.
Councillor Lib Peck, Cabinet member for environment and culture on Lambeth Council, said: “The new burial area is a sensitively designed and peaceful space that is a welcome and attractive complement to the rest of the cemetery.
“With burial space in London limited, the council is taking active steps to increase the amount of burial space available. I am continually impressed by the work of our cemeteries staff, whose sensitivity and professionalism I know is appreciated week in, week out, by those who have lost a loved one.”
Burial space in London is finite. Lambeth Council’s Cemeteries and Crematoriums department has therefore embarked upon a major project to identify space within its cemeteries to accommodate new burial without incurring the large expense of purchasing and developing other green/brown-field sites as cemeteries.
The council is also working on plans for a ‘Burial Village’ Concept at Lambeth Cemetery using a similar system of burial chambers, which will further increase burial space for Lambeth residents.
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