Hi everyone, it is lovely to see you all taking such an interest in our cemetery! There is lots of news for you, most of which you can get direct from the horse's mouth at www.deaneroadcemetery.com. A group of 7 local people formed a committee two years ago. We include two Jews, one from the Princes Road Synagogue and also a local Archivist, two people from the Kensington Regeneration staff, someone from the C7 Housing Association, a gardener and me - the local ward councillor. We have so far held two open days, which you have seen posts of on this thread and photographs. I am in one of the sepia photos, in a black hat.
We have been working for 12 months now on a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund and we have passed the first stage. Next week we are putting out a tender document to interested conservation people to see who might want to quote for helping us develop the second stage of the bid to the Lottery. We ultimately would like to raise about a quarter of a million pounds to pay for the restoration of the cemetery - its walls, facade, listed structures, graves etc. We hope then to open the cemetery more often for tours, and to schools etc. There is a Friends of Deane Road Road Cemetery you can join too, via our website where we also take donations. We have tried to get money from David Lewis's old store but they don't have any to give us. He didn't have children and left most of his money for local buildings in the city.
Thanks for your interest! Best wishes, Louise