The London Burial Grounds: Notes on Their History from the Earliest Times to the Present DayHolmes, Isabella M.
History
The London Burial Grounds: Notes on Their History from the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Holmes, Isabella M.
Cemeteries -- England -- London -- History
Lastly, there are the cemeteries of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews—one,
closed for burials, behind the Beth Holim Hospital in Mile End Road, and
one, nearly five acres in extent and still in use, just beyond the
People’s Palace. These are neatly kept, the former, or at any rate a
part of it, being actually turned into a sort of garden for the patients
in the hospital, with trees in it, paths and seats. The latter is bare
of trees or shrubs, but is divided into plots, with paths between. In
both of them the tombstones, unlike those in the other Jewish grounds,
are flat, either slabs on the ground or low altar tombs; and in the
large ground there are many children’s graves, marked by much smaller
altar tombs dotted amongst the large ones, which are very unique and
interesting. The Hebrew inscription at the entrance tells us that this
is “The House of the Living,”—“Beth Hayim.” The cemetery was acquired in
1657, and contains the remains of the ancestors of Lord Beaconsfield,
the Eardley family, Sampson Gideon, the Samudas, D’Aguilars, Ricardos,
Lopes, and many others who trace their descent from Sephardi Jews.
Hitherto it has not been possible to secure any of the Jewish graveyards
as public gardens, the feeling of the community is against it, but the
day may yet come when the Council of the United Synagogue will allow the
experiment to be tried.
[Illustration: JEWISH CEMETERY, MILE END.]
The burial-ground of the Greeks in London is an enclosure in Norwood
Cemetery, where some elaborate monuments may be seen. The Mohammedans
can practise their rites at Woking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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