Paul Farrell

A MORTUARY in a back garden shed surrounded by flats in Tufnell Park has been taken over and revamped by the Whittington Hospital’s contract funeral directors.

In the early 2000s residents had run an impassioned poster campaign to thwart the conversion of a shed in a builders’ backyard into an eco-friendly mortuary called Green Endings.

Founder Roslyn Cassidy was told of a range of residents’ worries including fears about evil spirits and the smell of rotting flesh wafting through their windows.

But the planning application was approved and Green Endings was born, with its owners claiming it “never received a complaint” afterwards.

SEE ALSO TRIBUTE TO CARDBOARD COFFIN UNDERTAKER WHO RAN MORTUARY IN BACK GARDEN SHED

It became a pioneer in sustainable funeral care: wicker coffins, a pushbike hearse and no embalming. Jeremy Smith, who died last month, took over from Ms Cassidy in 2009 when she moved back to Australia.

Inside the shed structure

Now friend and former employee Paul Farrell, owner of LDC Funerals which had previously rented space in the mortuary from Mr Smith, has taken the building over.

“Our ethos of what we do is very much based around what [Mr Smith] did – but we’re slightly less nuts,” Mr Farrell told the Tribune.

Like Mr Smith, who always cracked open a bottle of champagne with clients, Mr Farrell has installed a bar Optic for spirits on the office wall to raise a toast to the dead with mourning customers.

Keeping with Mr Smith’s focus on accessibility, LDC offers discounts to people from Islington and Camden.

Mr Farrell said: “Our overheads are really low and therefore we’re able to pass that on to the customer. I’m 63, I’ve lost the joie de vivre to be dynamic.

“Cremation across the board costs £2,300 and a direct cremation costs £900.”

With a background as a plasterer – and then as Boy George’s personal assistant for 10 years – Mr Farrell has begun transforming the 60-square-metre shed that was once used to just refrigerate dead bodies into a small office, kitchenette and a chapel.

Before the space could hold eight bodies; it can now accommodate 30 in five fridges and one bariatric freezer – for larger people.

Mr Smith recalled dark nights at the start of the pandemic when he was called to help at the Whittington because “they couldn’t bag the bodies fast enough” and he added slats to already full fridges to expand their capacity.

LDC also offers free funerals for miscarried babies. Mr Farrell said: “I was working at the Whittington and I found out about this bizarre 24-week rule that exists.

“The law states that if a lady miscarries a child up to 24 weeks, it has no identity at all.

“There is no financial assistance available to help a woman who wants to grieve and bury or cremate that child.”

He added: “It was so ridiculous. So we decided the answer is: let’s do it for free. We’ve done around 15 to 20 of those. My first baby funeral was for a lady who had miscarried at 12 weeks.

“It was her first baby and we provided a little coffin. She was inconsolable. This is a baby but to the general politician or whoever it isn’t.

“She was able to have a burial, and a place to go to and say goodbye, and I think that’s important.”