Willesden Jewish cemetery gets £1.7million Heritage Lottery Fund grant
Historic Victorian location can now open as a heritage site after a successful end to two-year funding battle
Willesden Cemetery was this week celebrating a successful end to a two-year funding battle, after it was awarded a £1.7m National Lottery grant to open it up as public heritage site.
The United Synagogue (US) was awarded the money from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to open the Victorian site – the only Jewish cemetery to be listed on the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.
The grant forms the bulk of a £2.3 million project “to put the cemetery on a sustainable footing for the future,” with heritage honchos acknowledging that it is still little-known outside the Jewish community.
Among the 29,800 graves are pioneering scientist Rosalind Franklin and Tesco founder Sir Jack Cohen, and Stuart Hobley, head of HLF London, said the cemetery was “an incredibly important part of Jewish, London and national heritage”.
The project will begin this spring, and organisers said the cemetery “will become a hub for volunteering, with people of different backgrounds developing skills and working together to capture, protect and share the site’s heritage”.
Michael Goldstein, president of the US, said: “Our community has long valued Willesden Cemetery as a significant place of memory… We are now poised to open it to the public, fostering greater understanding of our heritage and way of life.”
The project envisages a refurbishment of the Edwardian entrance Lodge into a visitor welcome centre, new openings in the exterior wall to give views into the cemetery, new planting along paths, and conservation work at the original Prayer Hall and linked funerary buildings.
Willesden will remain an active burial ground, and adaptations will allow for school visits, talks and exhibitions, telling the stories of those buried there through guided walks, films, signage, maps and a website.
Activities will start from later in 2018, ranging from genealogy to creative writing and photography, and temporary exhibitions will showcase Jewish history as part of local and London heritage.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
