Watts Cemetery Chapel

Art Nouveau memorial chapel a few miles south of town

A small, extraordinary memorial chapel in Compton village south of Guildford, built in 1898 by Mary Watts and her local terracotta-modelling class. The exterior is a red-and-cream rotunda; the interior is densely covered with Celtic-revival plaster reliefs symbolising the souls' journey through life, judgement, and the afterlife.

The chapel sits on the edge of a small cemetery where G F Watts is buried. The Watts Gallery across the road, which holds the largest collection of his paintings, makes this an easy half-day outing from Guildford. Reachable by car or on foot from Guildford via the North Downs Way.

things to do sight
A story
The chapel was built in 1898 by Mary Watts, wife of the Victorian painter G F Watts, with the help of villagers from Compton who she taught to model terracotta. The interior is covered with Celtic-revival reliefs symbolising the soul's journey to God — one of the great surviving works of British Art Nouveau.