Jewish Cemeteries in Liverpool

Over the years there are believed to have been nine Jewish cemeteries in Liverpool. Currently only two are open to new burials and of the others, some are in a poor state and others no longer there at all.

The Liverpool Jewish Archives are held by the Liverpool Record Office and date back to 1780. The first Jewish cemetery of the Old Hebrew Congregation was in the garden of a house in Upper Frederick Street, with the first recorded interment taking place in 1789. The congregation also had a cemetery in Oakes Street, off London Road, which had its first burial in 1802.

14981414901_f56e2745e9_o

Oakes Street closed in 1837 but burials continued at Upper Frederick Street for the rest of the 19th Century. However the more prominent Jewish cemetery during this period was at Deane Road, which was consecrated the year Oakes Street stopped taking burials. Deane Road contains the graves of many eminent Jewish Victorians, including David Lewis who founded the Lewis’s chain of department stores and Charles Mozley, Liverpool’s first Jewish Mayor.

Deane Road cemetery stopped being used regularly when Broadgreen Cemetery opened in 1904. The last interment was in 1929 but it is still there today and has undergone an extensive restoration thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This has seen the renovation of the archway entrance, cleaning and re-fixing of headstones and the opening of a small visitor centre.

After the opening of Broadgreen Cemetery, all those buried at Oakes Street and Upper Frederick Street were exhumed and re-interred. No trace of those cemeteries exist anymore. Broadgreen remains the cemetery of the Old Hebrew Congregation, who continue to worship at the Princes Road Synagogue, a magnificent structure consecrated in 1874 and the only Grade I listed building in Toxteth.

The Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation was founded after breaking away from the Old Hebrew Congregation in the middle of the 19th Century. For eighty years they worshipped in a synagogue at Hope Place on a site that is now occupied by the Unity Theatre. Their first cemetery was at Green Lane in Tuebrook.

Jewish Cemetery Entrance, Everton

Green Lane Cemetery is still there today with the earliest headstone dating from 1842. However the site is sadly sealed off and overgrown. It has been out of use since 1921, when Long Lane Cemetery was opened, next to the city council run Everton Cemetery in Fazakerley. Amongst the interments at Long Lane is Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles who died in 1967 at the age of just 32. The cemetery has not been used since 2008 when the congregation became defunct.

There are two independent Jewish burial grounds in Liverpool. Rice Lane Jewish Cemetery is situated off Hazeldale Road in Walton and closed in 1983. There is also a dedicated Jewish section at West Derby Cemetery in Lowerhouse Lane which remains open for burials in reserved plots.

Finally in South Liverpool, Springwood Jewish Cemetery is on the other side of Springwood Avenue from Allerton Cemetery. This is used by the Childwall and Allerton congregations, which worship at synagogues in Dunbabin Road and Mather Avenue respectively.

Sarsfield Memorials is proud to provide memorials to all denominations. We can supply headstone and slab covers with inscriptions in both English and Hebrew. Examples of some of the Jewish memorials can be seen here and if you wold like to discuss further please contact us, we will be happy to provide a free no obligation quote.