Oldest Jewish cemetery in Britain uncovered beneath the Barbican

The cemetery dates to 1070, around the time Jewish merchants settled in London during the early Norman period. William the Conqueror had invited Jews to England to work as moneylenders and financiers, a profession forbidden to Christians at the time. While Jews were allowed to live and work within the Roman walls of London, they buried their dead outside the city limits.

The burial ground remained in use for over 200 years, until Jews were expelled from England in 1290 by King Edward I. It would be nearly 400 years before Jews were permitted to return to Britain.

After the expulsion, the cemetery site came to be known as the “Jews’ Garden” and gradually fell into disrepair. Heavy bombing during the Blitz destroyed much of Cripplegate, where the cemetery is located, and the Barbican estate was later built on the site.

The cemetery was identified by a group of Barbican residents and local history enthusiasts, who had heard about its rumoured existence and set out to find the truth.

Gaby Morris, a trustee of the Jewish Square Mile Foundation, said the organisation is made up of Jews who have lived in the Barbican “for years and knew nothing about this story.”

"We’re not historians. It was very exciting as we began to understand and put flesh and bones onto it, realising these are real people.” She said the cemetery goes directly under her house, “it was hidden in plain sight.”

Howard Morris, chair of the Jewish Square Mile Foundation, said: “The cemetery would have given Jewish people a sense of continuity and community. By being allowed this place to bury their dead, they could make their lives and their families’ lives in the City.

“For a marginalised people whose existence depended on the ‘pleasure’ of the King, it was proof of a measure of respect for their faith and traditions,” he added.

Reverend Canon Jack Noble, rector of St Giles’ Cripplegate, was part of the group that uncovered the cemetery.

He told The Times, “I heard about a Jewish cemetery here which was on the map, but almost completely forgotten.

“So we had a cup of tea in the rectory, literally in a sitting room with tea and biscuits, and we collected all these people together who had different investment and expertise, be they workers, residents, people who had a background in medieval history, all sorts of disciplines, and we just got excited about this story – which is a genuinely unique piece of national history.”

He said the group came back “week after week” to work on the project.

Jewish architect, chair of the Barbican Residents’ Association and one of four trustees at Jewish Square Mile Foundation Jan Marc Petroschka, said, “My neighbour contacted me, and told me about the story.”

He explained: “I’m an architect, so I looked through the books and the maps and I saw it’s true!”

Dr Rory MacLennan, a cataloguer and manuscript researcher at the British Library, was one of the academics who supported the group’s work.

MacLennan said: “London was one of the country’s Jewish centres and, home to the country’s only Jewish cemetery until 1177, it was a focal point for English Jews.

“(This project) will revive interest in this key site and its history, an early chapter in London’s history of migration and diversity.”

An exhibition on the cemetery and London’s Jewish history will run at St Giles’ Cripplegate until September 16, organised by the Jewish Square Mile Foundation.