discover london’s medieval Jewish cemetery at barbican and st Giles cripplegate

The Barbican Estate’s Thomas More Garden is situated on the largest part of the medieval cemetery, while other parts of the historic site lie below the City of London School for Girls and adjacent lake stretching south below Mountjoy House, the Barber-Surgeons’ Gardens and the former Museum of London. The only publicly accessible part of the burial ground lies below the Barber-Surgeons’ Gardens although the entire area can be viewed from the Defoe House and Wallside Highwalks.

1000 YEARS OF HISTORY

A 1000 year old Jewish burial ground lies just outside the Roman Wall surrounding the City of London. On the other side of this wall was the original Jewry, in a medieval street pattern which still exists. Even today the names of the streets are mostly the same - Wood Street, Milk Street, Fore Street and so on. The cemetery lay outside the City Wall, close to the Smooth Field (modern Smithfield), then the site of fairs, lawlessness, butchery and executions. This was the only place where the Jews were allowed to bury and honour their dead.

However, for a people existing at the whim of the King and facing outbreaks of intense persecution, having a permitted place to bury their dead, according to their customs and beliefs, represented continuity. It must have been cherished as a modest level of respect and permanence.

The Jewish cemetery existed for 200 years from soon after the Jews’ arrival in England until their expulsion from the country in 1290. After that the cemetery and the generations buried in it were neglected, desecrated and then faded from memory. Now the ancient burial ground has been rediscovered.

LOCATION

In 1940 the Blitz destroyed a huge area of about 40 acres north of St Paul’s Cathedral. In 1969, on that desolate site, the Barbican residential estate opened. The Barbican has become an architectural Brutalist treasure drawing visitors from around the world. Hidden beneath the Estate lies the ancient Jewish burial ground. Below Thomas More Garden and surrounded by the residential blocks and the City of London School for Girls, it reaches southwards under Barber-Surgeons' Gardens and the former Museum of London.

OUR GOAL

The goal of the Jewish Square Mile is to reveal and celebrate the history of the Jewish Cemetery and the Jewish people who lived in medieval London. The picture many of us have of the medieval Jew, informed by Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe and William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, perpetuates an inaccurate and out of date picture of the people, who they were, how they lived, their families, their hopes, their dreams. Our aims are to show the contributions of this diverse community then, and after Jews were invited to return to England in 1656.