How was the oldest Jewish grave found in the UK?

Brady Street and Alderney Road cemeteries in the East End of London are among the oldest Jewish graves in the UK. For a long time, few people dropped in at these abandoned cemeteries if it were not for the school teacher at one of the local schools.

Louis Burke since 2004 worked in high school on Brady Street. One day, looking out of the school window on the third floor, he saw an old graveyard overgrown with lush vegetation. Curious about the find, he found out that his school borders on the two oldest Jewish cemeteries in the UK.

According to the documents, these two cemeteries appeared here in 1761 and 1697. They were both closed in the 1850s, after there was no space left for new burials. To renew interest in this place, Louis Burke began to shoot a cemetery at different times of the year and publish pictures on social networks.

Over time, many gravestones in the cemetery acquired a specific green color. Scientists believe that this process is partly associated with an increase in the acidity level in the rain, especially because of the growing number of factories and workshops in the area.

Another factor is the effect of periodic freezing and thawing of some gravestones on the material from soft sandstone, which leads to the aging of the surface.

As a result, microorganisms from the air fall into cracks on the surface, which leads to a change in color.