Downs Crematorium

View of Downs Crematorium

Photo taken John Desborough, January 2003

Schoolboy memories of the ovens at work

by Martin Nimmo

Downs Crematorium is not really a place to visit unless you have to, but it's a very pleasant landscaped site with rose gardens and a view! There are two chapels, both very well kept and in fairly constant use, but you don't, as a mourner, feel rushed like you do at some other crematoria. I've been there several times as older members of my family passed away.

Taken to see the ovens at work
Once (as part of an RE lesson!) I was taken round the back to see the ovens at work. That was many years ago, of course; I don't suppose that would be available today. It was a very interesting experience, and the whole process was somewhere between reverent and clinical.

At school (Brighton College) a good mile to the South, we could tell when the wind was from the North because of the slightly sweet sickly smell from the crematorium chimneys. The wind from the South-West was better, as it smelled of hops from the Kemp Town Brewery's malt store!

Gold lettering on black marble
There are tablets for my Grandma and father up there at the Downs, together with hundreds of others; Brighton and Hove's former citizens commemorated in gold lettering on black marble.