Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

1734 Novo Cemetery Indenture

1734 Indenture Regarding Novo Cemetery • London Metropolitan Archives

This treasure is an indenture, dated 14 February 1734, relating to the acquisition of the ‘Novo’ or ‘new’ burial ground in Mile End Road, East London. It comes from the archive of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation, held by the London Metropolitan Archives.

 

Congregation Seals

By 1733 there was little room left in the congregation’s burial ground in Mile End Road, (now known as the ‘Velho’ or ‘Old’ Cemetery). The congregation therefore negotiated the purchase of two and a half acres of extra land further east along the same road and the ‘Novo’ (‘New’) cemetery was brought into use, paid for by wealthy members of the Congregation who put their names and seals to this indenture for the purpose.

Novo Cemetery / Queen Mary University, 2017 © Dr. Falco Pfalzgraf

By 1895 the cemetery was almost full, and it was closed for burials for adults in 1905 and for children in 1918. Today the surviving fraction of the cemetery is incorporated into land that is now part of Queen Mary University. It is one of only two exclusively Sephardic cemeteries left in England. What you see here is one fifth of the original five acres. Approximately 9,500 people were buried here between 1733 and 1918.

The surviving graves are plain, reflecting Sephardic tradition that teaches we enter the world with nothing and exit it in the same way. The gravestones, though, are more decorated. Most are written in Hebrew and English. Many well-known English Jews are buried here. For more information about the Novo Cemetery, we recommend this photo essay from local community magazine Roman Road.

This year the Pascal Theatre Company, led by Julia Pascal, was set to launch One Lost Stone, a devised performance project about Sephardi British history to be performed in the Novo Cemetery. Due to Covid-19 the live performance aspect of the project will not happen and the project can be seen online. Read more here.

 

 

Discover more Hidden Treasures

Hidden Treasures: Celebrating the documents, photos and artefacts in British archives that tell the story of Jews in Britain