Restoring historic cemetery buildings

Portsmouth City Council is investing in the city’s historic cemeteries to protect important buildings, improve the environment, and make sure there’s enough space for future burials.

Our cemeteries are peaceful places for reflection and remembrance. They’re also home to buildings with unique architectural and historical value. As part of our heritage strategy, we’re working to preserve these spaces so they can be enjoyed for generations to come.

Current projects

Highland Road Cemetery – Dissenter’s Chapel

We’ve carried out £65,000 of repairs to the Grade II listed Dissenter’s Chapel, designed by local architect Thomas Ellis-Owen. This striking Byzantine-style brick building has been restored with work to the roof, walls, rendering and floor joists. You can see examples of the work carried out below.

Images from left to right:

• roof before repairs carried out
• old roof stripped ready for new one to be installed
• scaffolding around the chapel
• render work being carried out on the chapel
• roof nearing completion being repaired
• finished roof repairs at rear
• inside of the chapel with old floor removed
• new joists being installed
• original floorboard back in place
• chapel following the completion of repair work

Kingston Cemetery – West Chapel

We’re planning a £200,000 investment to bring the Grade II listed neo-Gothic West Chapel back into use. This will help preserve the building and make it a useful space once again.

Milton Cemetery – Lodge building

The lodge at Milton Cemetery has been empty for some time, and is no longer safe to use. It’s not a listed building and doesn’t meet the needs of the cemetery team or visitors. After exploring many options, we’ve decided to carefully dismantle the lodge, starting in November 2025. This will free up space for future burials, which is important as there are limited sites available for new cemeteries in Portsmouth.

We’ve carried out an ecological survey and will keep the garden area as it is during the work to reduce disruption. In future, we’ll tidy the space so it can be enjoyed by the public, while protecting wildlife habitats. The nearby toilet block will stay, and we’ll look to improve it in the coming years.

Making the right choices for heritage

Since 2012, the council has invested nearly £14.5 million in heritage projects across the city. We use a scoring system to help decide which buildings to prioritise, which is set out in our Heritage Strategy for 2024-2034. This looks at:

• status – whether the building is officially recognised or protected
• condition – how much repair work is needed
• potential impact – the social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits of restoring the building

This approach helps us focus on projects that matter most to the community and have the greatest potential for future use.