West London Reform Cemetery

A Jewish burial ground, established in 1843 by the West London Synagogue of British Jews.

MATERIALS & PLAN: the boundary walls are of red and yellow brick, laid in random bond, with brick copings. Tombstones are of limestone, marble and granite and combine the Sephardi and Ashkenazi traditions of vertical and horizontal tombstones in a mixed distribution throughout the cemetery. The burial ground is roughly the shape of a right triangle with a flattened top. The eastern boundary runs along Kingsbury Road. The original northern end of the site, with entrance gates, carriage sweep and Burial Hall, has been redeveloped. The burial ground to the south, survives largely unscathed: a central avenue runs north-south and this is crossed by a path, running east-west, with a walk around the edges of the site, inside the boundary wall. The majority of the graves face north.

The walls to the graveyard are of red and London stock brick laid in random bond and vary from approximately one and a half to two metres in height. They are divided on both sides by pilaster buttresses. Most of the walling is of mid-C19 date, but this has been replaced by late-C20 walling at the northern end and along sections of the western and southern sides of the enclosure where damage or collapse have required. There is an original pedestrian gate at the northern end of the eastern wall and a double gateway to the south-eastern corner was added in the 1890s with raised gate piers. This now has C20 metal gates.

Graves are not grouped according to Sephardi or Ashkenazi background, and there is a clear and apparently intended mixture of both, but family groups are apparent in the central area of the cemetery and children’s graves are grouped along the western edge. Monument types are also varied, including headstones and ledger stones as well as chest tombs, broken columns, caskets, open books and obelisks, and more conventional symbols of Cohenim hands and felled trees at the tops of headstones, as well as gothic and classical motifs. Contrary to normal Jewish practice, some of the monuments have detailed carving of flowers and vegetation and, in one case a weeping human figure on a tombstone. Inscriptions are in English, French and German, as well as Hebrew. Notable groupings of tombs include those of the Levy-Lawson, Goldsmid, Stern and Mocatta families.