Brompton Cemetery was opened in 1840 and like the other so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’ was owned by a private company with shareholders. Edwin Chadwick’s Metropolitan Interments Act 1850 nationalised the cemetery, which continues to remain under control of the state. In 1874 the first cremation took place at Woking in Surrey under the auspices of the Cremation Society of England. Desirous of establishing a crematorium in the London area, Brompton Cemetery was suggested, but a site was found at Golders Green. In the 1940s the proposal re-emerged, but fortunately, was not progressed. A file held in the National Archive details the discussions between civil servants and the local authority concerning the construction of a crematorium in Brompton Cemetery. What is revealed is an astonishing approach to what today is a Grade I listed cemetery. This paper summarises the contents of the deliberations while commenting on the position of privately owned cemeteries in the mid-twentieth century and the progress of the cremation movement.