West Ham Jewish Cemetery is a cemetery for Jews in

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

in the

London Borough of Newham The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the s ...

, 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 London congregations. Kadish, Sharman, ''Jewish Heritage in England: An Architectural Guide'',

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

, 2006, p. 35 There are a number of notable people buried here, in a graveyard visually dominated by the imposing Rothschild Mausoleum. One section contains graves removed to this burial place from the former

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. It l ...

burial ground of the Hambro Synagogue when that site underwent urban redevelopment. The oldest legible tombstone in this section dates from 1794.

Rothschild Mausoleum

The Rothschild Mausoleum is circular, domed,

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be cons ...

built in 1866 by

Ferdinand James von Rothschild Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (17 December 1839 – 17 December 1898), also known as Ferdinand James Anselm Freiherr von Rothschild, was a British Jewish banker, art collector and politician who was a member of the prominent Rothschild family ...

for his late wife Evelina de Rothschild who died in childbirth at age 27. The architect was

Matthew Digby Wyatt Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (28 July 1820 – 21 May 1877) was a British architect and art historian who became Secretary of the Great Exhibition, Surveyor of the East India Company and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Camb ...

. It is fashioned of marble in

Renaissance revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

style.Pearson, Lynn F. ''Mausoleums'', Osprey Publishing, 2001, p. 21

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ...

notes the "dome of Eighteenth-century detail on attached

Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...

columns" and praises the ironwork and stone carving, calling it worthy of "the attention of the student of mid-Victorian detail."

Anti-Semitic attack

In 2005 a number of monuments were destroyed and graves desecrated in what the police described as an attack by

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

vandals. The doors of the mausoleum were pounded with heavy iron bars until they were bashed in, then they were torn from the building.

Notable burials

* Evelina de Rothschild (1839–1866), socialite *

(1839–1898) * Sir David Salomons, 1st Baronet (1797–1873), a leading figure in the 19th-century struggle for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom. He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

and

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

. *

Philip Salomons Philip Salomons (1796–1867) was an English financier, Jewish leader and High Sheriff of Sussex. Early life Philip Salomons was born in London in 1796. He travelled extensively in the United States as a young man, and became a naturalized Ameri ...

(1796–1867), financier and High Sheriff of Sussex.

War graves

The cemetery has five Commonwealth service war graves, four from

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and one from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. A German soldier (prisoner of war) and two German civilian internees from the former war are also buried here.

References

External links

Official website
* – Mausoleum {{coords, 51.5532, 0.0138, display=title 1856 establishments in England 1866 establishments in England 1856 in London Jewish Cemeteries in London, West Ham Buildings and structures completed in 1866 Jewish Cemeteries in London, West Ham Cemetery vandalism and desecration Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in England

Jewish mausoleums Jewish Cemeteries in London, West Ham Mausoleums in England Monuments and memorials in London Renaissance Revival architecture in England *