Mortonhall Crematorium

Architects Spence, Glover and Ferguson were commissioned by Edinburgh City Council in 1960 to build a new multi-denominational crematorium.

The walls are constructed from white calcined flint aggregate concrete blocks in three sizes arranged to give a distinctive pattern.

From the main buildings a simple concrete cross can be seen, positioned on a small hill, a feature copied from Gunnar Asplund's Woodland Crematorium in Stockholm.

[9] In 2005, the crematorium appeared in the list of 100 best modern Scottish buildings published in the architectural journal Prospect.

[10] It was one of five buildings designed by Spence that appeared in a list of the top 100 architectural works from the past century, compiled by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).

Prior to 1970, this resulted in burial of the remains, but following the construction of Mortonhall (as the first Council-owned crematorium in Edinburgh) the law permitted these to be cremated.

In 2012, it emerged (through a freelance journalist) that the ashes of babies who had died shortly after birth had not been returned to parents.

[16] In January 2015, four draft designs for a permanent memorial were unveiled, with affected parents asked to give their views.