London Jewish Cemetery Update

Almost every day you can find a news item about vandalism at another cemetery, so it's a pleasure to read two items in the Tracing the Tribe blog, written by Schelly Talalay Dardashti, with some good cemetery news

First, activists, community leaders and politicians are supporting restoration efforts at one of Europe's oldest Jewish cemeteries, Bankroft Road cemetery, located in Mile End,which was bombed in 1944. Architect and amateur historian Susie Clapham, has also submitted plans to the Board of Deputies, which has owned the cemetery since its closure in 1928, for a memorial to some of the UK's first Ashkenazi immigrants.

There's a history of the cemetery, and associated synagogue at www.jewisheastend.com/maidenlane.html. there's a link from that site with further information on Jewish life in East End London.

Second, one of the largest British Jewish cemeteries, Edgwarebury Lane Cemetery, Edgware, will add 6,500 new burial spaces, after winning an appeal for expansion, which will cost some 1.5 million GBP.