The Brady Street Cemetery is a historic Jewish cemetery on Brady Street in

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

, E1. The cemetery opened in 1761 as the burial ground for the New Synagogue and was subsequently used by the Great Synagogue. It was closed to further burials from 1857. Several notable people are buried there.

Architecture

Brady Street Cemetery on 1870s Ordnance Survey map

The cemetery is in size and is surrounded by a wall topped with broken glass. The ''London: East'' edition of the

Pevsner Architectural Guides The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

describes the cemetery as "crowded with mainly later Victorian monuments" and highlights Miriam Levy's monument for its "considerable lavishness".

History

The land the cemetery occupies was originally a brickfield on Ducking Pond Lane and was subsequently known as North Street. In 1761 it was leased to the New Synagogue for an annual rent of 12

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from t ...

. The cemetery was extended in 1795. The Brady Street Cemetery rapidly filled, and a solution was found with the addition of a four-foot layer of soil in the centre of the cemetery to allow additional burials. The raised area became known as the "Strangers Mound" as many of the new burials were not affiliated to any particular congregation. The headstones of the burials in the Strangers Mound and the ones below are set back to back. The Great Synagogue subsequently buried people in the New Synagogue's

Jewish cemetery at West Ham West Ham Jewish Cemetery is a cemetery for Jews in West Ham in the London Borough of Newham, England. It was established in 1856 by the New Synagogue on Great St. Helen's, soon joined by the Great Synagogue in Duke's Place, both of them Lond ...

after forming a Conjoint Burial Board with the New Synagogue. In the 1980s the local council intended to redevelop the cemetery with the use of a

compulsory purchase order A compulsory purchase order (CPO; , ) is a legal function in the United Kingdom and Ireland that allows certain bodies to obtain land or property without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for p ...

as it had not been used for many years. If a cemetery has not had any interments for 100 years it may be redeveloped, but with the burial of

Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild Nathaniel Mayer Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild (31 October 1910 – 20 March 1990) was a British banker, scientist, intelligence officer during World War II, and later a senior executive with Royal Dutch Shell and N M Rothschild & Son ...

in the cemetery in 1990, the future of the Brady Street Cemetery was secured from building development until at least 2090. The cemetery is owned by the

United Synagogue The United Synagogue (US) is a union of United Kingdom, British Orthodox Jewish synagogues, representing the central Orthodox movement in Judaism. With 62 congregations (including 7 affiliates and 1 associate, ), comprising 40,000 members, it ...

and open only by appointment.

Notable burials

* Financiers Benjamin (c. 1753–1808) and Abraham (c. 1756–1810) Goldsmid, both of whom committed suicide * Rabbi of Great Britain

Solomon Hirschell Rabbi Solomon Hirschell (12 February 1762, London – 31 October 1842, London) was the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1802–42. He is best remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to stop the spread of Reform Judaism in Britain by excommunicating ...

(1762–1842) * Hyman Hurwitz (1770–1844), the first professor of Hebrew at

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

* Charity worker Miriam Levy (1801–1850) * Centenarian Nathan Moses who died aged 107 in 1799 * Banker

Nathan Meyer Rothschild Nathan Mayer Rothschild (16 September 1777 – 28 July 1836) was an English-German banker, businessman and finance, financier. Born in Frankfurt am Main in Germany, he was the third of the five sons of Gutle (Schnapper) and Mayer Amschel Roths ...

(1777–1836) and his wife Hannah Rothschild (née Barent-Cohen, 1783–1850) * Business executive and intelligence operative

(1910–1990) * Judah Cohen (1768–1838), merchant and owner of numerous slave plantations in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Retrieved on 20 March 2019.

References

External links

*
London Gardens Online: Brady Street Cemetery

Complete photographic record of headstones at the Brady Street Cemetery at CemeteryScribes
{{United Synagogue 1760s in London 1761 establishments in England Ashkenazi Jewish culture in London Buildings and structures in Whitechapel Cemeteries in London Jewish cemeteries in the United Kingdom Jews and Judaism in London Rothschild family

Architecture

History

Notable burials

See also

References

External links