Jewish Mortuary Chapel at Earlham Cemetery

A small mortuary chapel completed circa 1856 for members of the Jewish community, sited in the north-west corner of Earlham cemetery in Norwich, designed by Edward Everett Benest, Surveyor to the City of Norwich.

MATERIALS: red brick with ashlar stone and grey brick detailing, coped gables and a Welsh slate roof covering.

EXTERIOR: the chapel is a small, two-bay building aligned east-west, rising from a deep brick plinth. The bays are delineated by low buttresses, between which are red brick wall panels. At mid-wall level is a moulded string course carried around all sides of the building. The entrance doorway is set within the west gable, beneath a shouldered stone lintel. The string course is carried upwards in two steps to form a hood mould above the door head. There is a plain, vertically-planked door with cover strips. Above the doorway is a shallow, pointed-arched, three-light window opening with cusped heads to the staggered lights. At the east end is a similarly-detailed tall, five-light window. The window surrounds are formed of alternating clusters of grey and red bricks, whilst the corners and buttresses have grey bricks in imitation of quoining.

INTERIOR: the interior of the chapel is plainly detailed, with plain clay floor tiles, plastered and painted walls, exposed rafters and a single slender arch-braced collar truss supporting single purlins. There are no fixed furnishings.

SETTING: the chapel is at the edge of a small section of the cemetery reserved for members of the Jewish community, in which there are headstones of distinctive design. The headstone in a Jewish cemetery is known as a Matzeivah, and bears an inscription in Hebrew.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26/01/2017.