This extraordinary mausoleum is the first thing to catch your eye as you walk through the cemetery gates from Norwood Road. It is square and has a ‘dish-faced’ spire surmounted by a statue of Christ blessing a small child. There are cross-shaped windows cut into the spire and the entrance has bronze doors with glazed panels of similar form. The exterior is of Portland stone but inside it is lined with marble and mosaic. There are marble benches round the sides and tablets with inscriptions on the walls. One reads: “To the many sacred friends whose love and devotion made the world beautiful for me”, others say “Fear no one”, “Pain no one”, “Hate no one” and “Envy no one”. The words “Hope”, “Light” and “Life” are incised on the coving. The Maddick tomb has the initials DM on the front. This stands for Distim Maddick, the doctor's curious name, but it also stands for Dis Manibus, i.e. the two letters found at the top of almost any ancient Roman tombstone - meaning "to the souls of the departed".
There is a mausoleum with a similar spire in the English Cemetery at Surat in India. It is dated 1811.
Not known
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Grade II (England and Wales)
1931
Dr Edmund Distin Maddick (1857-1939) was a surgeon in the Royal Navy, before becoming Admiral Surgeon of the Fleet. He was also extremely keen on the dramatic arts, including cinema, and built the Scala Theatre (now demolished) in 1904-5. His special interest in cinema led to his theatre being used as a venue for early film and, partly as a result of this, in 1915 he was appointed as a liaison officer for British film camera operations on the Western Front. The mausoleum was built in 1931 some eight years before he died in 1939.
Good. The bronze doors have recently been restored by English Heritage as the first phase of a restoration project. The second phase will involve making the roof weatherproof (2002).
C Brooks, Mortal Remains (1989) 156;
L Pearson, Mausoleums (2002) 26.
C Scarre and J Roberts, 'The English Cemetery at Surat', Antiquaries Journal, (2005), 85, 250-291.
Friends of West Norwood Cemetery
None
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West Norwood Cemetery
Norwood Road
London
SE27 9JU