Blackheath Funeral Service

I can see that most of the Google reviews are from at least a year ago with nothing more recent, so maybe this is a recent decline in their service but the other 5 star reviews are a stark contrast to the experience I had in May/June 2026. Most of these issues seem to involve Bianca who was the funeral arranger and seemingly handled most of the admin, and the only reason I'm not giving this a 1 star is that the funeral itself seemed to have gone smoothly, although I didn't attend the service in the end, with Bill the funeral director being very reassuring. My late brother made the mistake of prepaying a plan with Blackheath, and I was also not the official client which made things more complicated, and this has ended up causing so many problems as: 1) They weren't aware he had a prepaid plan, and so our initial appointment was largely pointless, and we were told we could have the option of embalming but it would be an extra cost - My brother had already prepaid for this. We had to wait several days for them to withdraw his file from the main office. 2) We were told we could have an open casket funeral, and then one of the first suggestions for a crematorium, Eltham Crematorium, was one that didn't allow open casket funerals - Something that I only found out a week before the funeral, and meant we needed to plan and pay for a separate trip for a chapel visit. 3) We had to wait 5 weeks for the funeral, as Blackheath were unavailable on the 4 dates we gave across 3 weeks - we asked for afternoons as a preference but they did not offer any alternative dates or say/check that they had morning availability on the day. This caused several days of delays/waiting and more stress as we tried to find a date that worked for Blackheath, rather than the other way round. 4) They are closed over the weekends which is why we ended up having to wait a lot, as my brother died on a Friday and we had to wait until Tuesday for the first appointment, then we had to wait longer for his account to be activated. We gave the 4 dates on a Friday and were told no availability and then it was the bank holiday weekend so we had to wait until Tuesday before checking for morning availability on those same dates. 5) They made multiple mistakes with invoices, saying we had to pay extra for the cremation when my brother had already prepaid enough, and even after the funeral when I had personally paid upfront for an additional service, it was still charged on a supplementary invoice. 6) We had asked to witness the charge of the coffin, and were told it wasn't possible as we had booked the wrong time slot. Eltham states on their website any service before 3pm can witness the charge, and when I called and emailed to check they confirmed this had been the case for several years. This ended up being corrected as Blackheath were clearly wrong, but if I didn't take action myself nothing would have been done. And when I spoke to Bianca she deflected and avoided responsibility, stating it must be a recent change and that she wasn't aware of it. I said it should be her job to know, and then she tried placing the blame elsewhere by saying she wasn't told we wanted that service. I don't know how funeral arrangements go normally, maybe most people don't care about the details or they don't notice it, but I think it's absolutely ridiculous how many things were handled in this case. I ended up making a formal complaint to the main office for Funeral Partners, as my understanding is the funeral arranger often goes the extra mile to make things easier during a difficult period. All I can say is I feel like the bare minimum was done, if that, considering how many basic mistakes were made, and a difficult period was made far worse by the constant lack of care and incompetence shown. It has forever tarnished my brother's memory and I would recommend using a different provider, or being vigilant if you do go with Blackheath as you will need to stay on top of things and check when you are given incorrect information.

Blackheath Funeral Services arranged my dad’s funeral and celebration of his life. Bianca was lovely and extremely respectful and helpful with settting up the arrangements, as well as Matthew and hisbteam made everything run smoothly on the day.

My brother and I chose Blackheath Funeral Service as the best option in the Blackheath area for our mother's funeral. We were most impressed by how easy the whole process was. The lady that helped us, Toni, was lovely, and we were also helped by Jackie who was very understanding and proactive. The whole day went very well - as well as a funeral could go - and we received many compliments from friends and relatives about how well organised everything was. Thanks also to the funeral director on the day, Matt, who led the cortege and procession into the crematorium. Definitely, we would recomment Blackheath FS as providers of a well polished funeral service. Thankyou to everyone involved.

On behalf of the whole family we would like to thank you for the compassionate and professional way you looked after us following the death of our dad. We would especially like to thank Toni who made all the arrangements with great care and sensitivity, and Kelly who looked after us on the day of the funeral with great kindness and who found a wonderful way to include a family member with a learning disability in the service that meant so much to us all. The funeral was a beautiful tribute to our dad and we would recommend your services to anyone.

Losing my husband was devastating and still is. However, Blackheath Funeral Services have been with me every step of the way from the moment they collected my late husband’s body right up to the end when he was cremated. I can only say that the service I and my family have received from Toni was one of compassion, kindness, sensitivity and understanding. I would recommend BFS for the services they provide. Patricia from Greenwich