Bicentenary : 1826 – 2026
2026 marks 200 years since the opening of the Jewish Burial ground at Florence Place. It is amongst the oldest minority faith burial grounds outside London. It is a closed cemetery, owned and managed by the Brighton Hebrew Congregation with around 555 graves. The first burial was in 1832, the last as recently as 1976.
To mark this anniversary, in 2026 a book covering the history of the ground is to be published.
The contents will include:
- Where were Brighton Jews buried before Florence Place was opened?
- Details of the purchase of the cemetery and complications in relation to the deed of sale
- Planning the prayer hall and caretaker’s cottage on the ground
- Was the burial ground gifted by Thomas Kemp (as commonly believed) or was it bought?
- Measures taken to protect the ground from body snatchers and grave robbers
- The impact of Brighton Borough town improvements
- The two extensions to the grounds in the 1890s including a new cottage and a new prayer hall (grade ll listed in 1999)
- Details of some of the members of the congregation buried at Florence Place
- A statistical analysis of the known graves in terms of age at death, gender, and decade of death
- The impact of the new, Meadowview burial gound, opened in 1919
- The old plan and new, revised plan of the graves
- Details of the monumental stone masons
- Details of funeral directors used by the congregation
Further details will be added here when the book has been published.
Photographs of the cemetery taken by kind permisison from the grounds of Downs Infant School