We are totally here for people in our community (and beyond) who want to organise funerals without the need of a funeral director.

Many people do not know that funerals can be arranged without involving a Funeral Director or maybe just using a Funeral Director for some aspects that you need help with.

At ARKA we are here to listen to your choices and plans and hopefully we can then support you with anything that could be needed in the lead up to the funeral ceremony.

We are able to offer an hour meet free of charge to talk through your plans, offer advice and iron out any potential issues so that everything runs smoothly.

The main issue may be where the body will be looked after until the day of the ceremony and burial or cremation. This may be the only thing that you want a Funeral Director to do, so why pay more for the things you do not want.

It is very possible to keep the body at home and of course this can be talked through further if important to you or to the person who has died.

We can go through the paperwork that is needed and also guide you to coffins and shrouds if required. Many are now available online but we advise you check with the crematorium you are using before ordering, as there can be different requirements.

We of course have facilities at ARKA where we can look after the body until the day of the funeral, and the charge is £35 per night.

Other costings can be found on our website or you are welcome to simply ask, and we will work with you to clarify exactly what support you need and price that accordingly.

We are here to help but please remember we have to consider the other members of the community that we are supporting. I hope that this overview helps.

Our main advice would be to plan ahead of time and gather people who you will be asking for support at this time.

Refer to the Natural Death Centre and the Good Funeral Guide for further help and advice.

Also please see some experiences shared on our website as there are a few family stories on how they did it themselves and all the positive aspects.

It is very much a can do attitude from us and we are here to help…….so please just ask.

We really appreciate the recognition that we have within the community and are proud of the natural holistic support that we offer within the funeral industry.

Since beginning in 2003 we have strived to listen to what people want in terms of funeral support and ceremony.

We have remained small, not wanting to grow too big, not losing touch with the city that we love.

We continue to support many families and friends with funerals, but we have noticed a move towards delays between death and the funeral. This can be due to family overseas or holidays booked, or other family events, but with support and communication we would encourage you to plan around the dead as well as the living.

We recommend between 10 days and 3 weeks as a rough guide between the date of death and the date of the funeral. Of course sometimes, if the Coroner is involved or paperwork is held up by the GP or Medical Examiner, there can be further delay and we understand this. However typically in our area we are fortunate that there is no delay at crematoria or cemeteries so long as there is some flexibility around timing.

Moving forward, we have decided to use the 4 week from death date as a boundary and if further delay is needed (that is not due to Coroner or GP/Medical Examiner) then we will charge £35.00 per night for the longer care of your dead.

This is to factor in our costs too and to help us hopefully continue to give equal support to all those who come to us.

Thank you for your understanding.

 

Big news – our Surrey Street office is closing soon, but we are very much still here for you all, continuing to be based in Hanover where there is more parking, more space, and more room to support our community.

Surrey Street is where the ARKA mission began in October 2003 and has served us beautifully, but soon we will be moving and consolidating at our main premises in Islingword Road, so that the wonderful ARKA team can work more closely together and continue to grow.

Look at our fabulous space in Hanover!

We would like to let you know that lovely Sarah is leaving Arka after 14 years with us. Sarah has been central to our development and our customer care for all this time, she has helped Cara steer the ARKA ship through the most brilliant (and some pretty hair-raising) times! She will be missed by all of us here and I know that people in our community will miss her as well. We wish Sarah all the best in the future and hope that she will stay in touch with us as we continue to forge forward in the ARKA way.

Pre-paid funerals – Time to say Goodbye

We are asked about pre-paid funeral plans often, and we understand that people commonly want to have everything sorted before their death for peace of mind and to help their families. However, we have decided not to offer further pre-paid funeral plans as in our experience, finding repeatedly they failed both families and us.

We have tried a few different companies over our years and sadly have been unable to find a company offering the support we feel is needed. Our experience is that the management fees are high, the investment gains low, transparency lacking and the benefits fall mainly to the pre-paid companies themselves. We felt ourselves censored by the rules around such plans, unable to speak freely as to what we would consider best for people.

For anyone wanting to pay for their funeral in advance we strongly recommend they simply save or invest the money themselves in the same way they would choose to for any other funds, and rest assured a bank will honour a funeral director’s invoice at the time of need. In addition record your funeral wishes so that family know your hopes and intentions, which will give them both clarity and funds to carry out your funeral.

If you tie up your money in a pre-paid plan you lose money to the management fee, and you lose flexibility as they are normally tied to one funeral director. Should you move or they change, or your wishes change, your new plan may not be accepted on the same terms.

The rules around pre-paid plans have tightened up in recent years which is definitely a step in the right direction, but historically plans were guilty of using funds for reasons not disclosed to plan-holders, or of offering value only if no details were changed at all since the original intentions were set out. Life doesn’t always go to plan, and it is true that often neither does death, and we believe your funds should allow for that.

We are always happy to meet and talk through funeral wishes with anyone wanting to plan their funeral in advance, and can then keep your wishes on record. We make no charge for this, and there is no obligation to carry out your funeral with us. Or you are welcome to simply download our funeral wishes document and use that yourself.

If you already have a pre-paid funeral plan with us, rest assured we will of course fulfil your wishes to the best value possible following all the terms of your plan that we will absolutely still uphold.

 

 

Many of us look to online reviews for advice and recommendations for all sorts of aspects of life, and they can be a useful indicator to families when considering choice of funeral director. For us at ARKA its tricky though, as we don’t like to contact families about giving us a review unless they’ve explicitly offered. We feel it’s best not to contact people we’ve supported unless necessary, as we know they have a lot to deal with following a funeral. So, we’re putting the message out there now that if any of you have worked with us and would be willing to say something online about that experience, we would be so grateful. We are all for sharing experiences and for people to gain information from those who have experienced us for themselves.

If you are happy to leave us a Google review you can do so by opening Google Maps and ensure you are signed in. Once you find Arka Original Funerals, Islingword Road, on the left, scroll down and click “write a review”. In the window that appears, click the stars to give a score. You can also write a review.

If you use Trustpilot then head there – https://www.trustpilot.com/ login and search for ARKA Original Funerals and leave a review. If you need any help with the process, please do feel free to get in touch with us.

Finally, if you ever feel like you would be happy to share your experience of bringing about a funeral with us, maybe with a photo or two and a bit of writing then we would love to share your story on our website and/or our social media. If this sounds like something you might be willing to do, please do get in touch as we would love to share your story in whatever way you are willing. Any photos are particularly appreciated, as a picture ‘is worth a thousand words’ or so they say.

 

 

We wanted to thank everyone for joining us on 10^th November 2023 for our 20 year celebration. We had a wonderful night and it gave us an opportunity to look back over the years, to remember and commemorate with families who have trusted us to look after their loved ones and support them through the years. We all walked through the streets of our community here in Hanover, Brighton with lanterns, banners and photos of loved ones. We were led through the streets by the fabulous Voodoo Love Orchestra, so a big thank you to everyone on the procession, to our community for joining in and their encouraging whoops and cheers! and of course to our band of volunteers who worked hard to keep everyone safe.

When we got to St Lukes Church, we were hosted beautifully by Deacon Julie Newson who offered us the amazingly peaceful and atmospheric St Lukes church. We had wonderful food provided by Tilt and singing by the fabulous Jam Tarts choir led by our very own multi talented and ‘multi hatted’ Li Mills.

We had a really good discussion led by Rehana Rose with Caroline Lucas MP, Hannah Thompson and Jane Fox. We sang, we remembered and we looked at photos. All in all it was an inspiring evening, full of love and memories. One of the main things we hoped to achieve was to have a discussion about community, how we look after each other, how we look after each other when people we love die, how can we help, practically and emotionally. It’s a huge subject and one we will never tire of discussing. We feel so blessed to be located in such an amazing community, we hope that we add to that by providing a good service – and to be perfectly honest it’s not all about us, definitely not, but it was good to celebrate being here, in amongst you all.

In addition to those mentioned above, the evening would not have been as wonderful without the help and support of the following who we are so thankful to:

Helena and Same Sky for the lanterns
Lex Clarke-Kent for photography
Jake of Sussex Willow Coffins for the willow panels
Dagmara Rudkin for our banner
Hein Tang for filming the event

 

 

 

 

ARKA has been involved in your community for 20 years and supported many funerals.

Come join us in an evening of procession, reflection, togetherness and recognition of the journey that we are all taking, in life and death.

We want to say thank you for trusting us at one of the most difficult times in your life.

Come share memories, music, song, food and drink. It will be an interactive experience and we also have speakers including the wonderful Caroline Lucas.

We are encouraging people to make banners, flags with names, words, anything that encapsulates the memory of your loved one to carry on the procession.

There will be a screen at St Lukes, so if you wish to have a photo of the person you are remembering please send us a photo by email.

If you want to come along you are very, very welcome. We look forward to sharing the evening with you, whatever your experience.

It’s a way of saying thank you, a way of being together to commemorate our own journeys through doing this work and learning from and honouring all the amazing people we have encountered through the 20 years.

Please click here to book your free place.

 

Find out more about Direct Cremation through Arka