xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
The East London Central Synagogue, a 100-year-old synagogue in the East End, is for sale at an online auction next Thursday (12 February) with a guide price of more than £2 million. The synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was founded in 1923, and is being sold on behalf of the Federation of Synagogues.
This is the only surviving purpose-built synagogue in the East End and one of just three remaining synagogues in the East End. It was closed in 2020 after a leak in the roof caused part of the ceiling to collapse and also because of the impact of Covid-19 on attendance numbers.
Ever since, the synagogue in Whitechapel has been largely disused. It remains a locally listed heritage asset, however, and any development by new owners would involve taking consideration of this listing.
By the early 1890s, there were shuls (synagogues), chevrot (benevolent societies) and steiblech (informal places of worship) all over the Spitalfields, Whitechapel and the Saint George’s area. The East End had become a centre of Jewish life by the early 20th century, with a Jewish population of about 250,000 people and about 150 synagogues.
Most of these people were Yiddish-speaking first-generation immigrants from East Europe, unlike other, longer-established Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities in the country, which had come in earlier generations from the Low Countries.
Nelson Street is in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, and previously in Stepney, and extends for 1,000 ft east from New Road, off Commercial Road. It runs parallel with Varden Street, immediately to the north, and crosses over Turner Street and Philpot Street. The East London Central Synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue affiliated to the Federation of Synagogues.
It was founded as the Nelson Street Sfardish Synagogue (Hebrew name: Ohr HaChaim D’bnai Berdichev) in 1923, at a time when the East End was a crowded Jewish neighbourhood, largely made up of immigrants. Initially the style of service (nosach) was Sfardish or Sphardish, also known as Askenazi Sfard, which is not to be confused with Sephardi. The name Sfardish refers to a style of service that differs slightly from mainstream Ashkenazi and is similar to Hassidic usage. The order of service and certain extra words in some of the prayers are similar to the Sephardic tradition, but the Hebrew pronunciation and tunes are Ashkenazi, as were most of the Nelson Street congregation.
There were other Sfardish shuls in the area, such as Philpot Street Sfardish synagogue, which eventually amalgamated with Nelson Street.
Other lost synagogues in the East End include the Spital Square Poltava Synagogue on Heneage Street, the former Artillery Lane Synagogue and the former Gun Street Synagogue.
The foundation stone of Nelson Street Synagogue was laid by the synagogue president, B Bernstein, on 19 August 1923. The synagogue was designed by Lewis Solomon (1848-1928), an architect who designed several synagogues, and served as both the honorary architect of the Federation of Synagogues and architect and surveyor of the United Synagogue.
Lewis Solomon was born in 1848 to a Jewish family and was an apprentice and later clerk of works in the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt. He commenced practice on his own in London in 1872. Lewis Solomon and Son also redesigned the premises of the neighbouring Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road, which also survives, in 1921. His other works include Golders Green Synagogue and the Fulham and West Kensington Synagogue.
His practice was being run by 1923 by his son Digby Lewis Solomon (1884-1962). Lewis Solomon died in 1928, and the practice later became Lewis Solomon, Kaye & Partners.
Nelson Street Synagogue has been described as having ‘an unassuming exterior and a stunningly beautiful interior.’ The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described it in 1951: ‘Discreet brick exterior with two tiers of windows beneath round-headed arches with stone keystones. Fine classical interior. Galleries with iron railings between Ionic columns; coved steps, framed by a Venetian arch on Doric columns. Above the Ark, scrolled pediment with tablets of the law and Lions of Judah. Panelled pews and Bimah.’
Nelson Street Synagogue had a tradition of assisting local poor people, setting up of soup kitchens and other charities. It also provided a welcoming haven for refugees fleeing Eastern Europe.
The area around Whitechapel and Mile End was known at one time as London’s ‘Jewish Quarter’ and the poet Avram Stencl, himself a refugee from Nazi Germany arriving here in 1944, understood this at a much deeper level describing it as ‘the last shtetl’, with all the exile, struggle and longing that implies.
The East End was heavily bombed during World War II, and the Jewish population moved on to new Jewish centres in north and north-west London, such as Stamford Hill, Golders Green and Hendon.
The consequent fall in membership numbers caused many East End synagogues to close and the congregations of the East End synagogues consolidated. Over the years, about 20 neighbouring synagogues were amalgamated with Nelson Street, but some of them lived on as names on commemorative plaques.
They include:
Belz Synagogue (by 1952), Berditchever Synagogue (by 1952), Buross Street, Cannon Street Road Synagogue (early 1970s), Chevra Shass, Commercial Road Great Synagogue (after 1968), Grove Street Synagogue (about 1949), Jubilee Street Zionist Synagogue (about 1967), Mile End Synagogue, New Road Synagogue (1974), Philpot Street Great Synagogue (after 1956), Philpot Street Sphardish Synagogue (after 1956), Rumanian Sidney Street Synagogue (by 1952), and the Sons of Britchan (B’nai Brichtan) Synagogue (1952).
The synagogue was renamed East London Central Synagogue in 1975. In recent years, it was left as the East End’s only surviving purpose-built synagogue and one of just three remaining in the East End, along with Sandy’s Row Synagogue, and the Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road.
Because of these amalgamations, the shul on Nelson Street had a large collection of Torah scrolls, some dating back to the 18th century, although many are now of unknown origin.
Nelson Street shul was once the most vibrant in the East End. Many people on social media recalled how it used to be full, especially during the high holydays and Yomim Tovim. The comments included ones that recalled Josif Weisz, a chazan from Romania with a beautiful tenor voice, and Rabbi Spetzman, an elderly rabbi with a flowing long beard who gave his sermons in Yiddish. Even in the 1980s ‘it was full of some amazing old characters … proper EastEnders.’
By the beginning of the 21st century, ‘the congregation consisted of about half a dozen stalwarts and a rabbi who walked each Saturday from Stoke Newington.’
The Jewish East End Celebration Society organised a number of Jewish East End activities 20 years ago (2003). These included an interview with Anna Tzelniker, a renowned Yiddish actor who worked with her father Meier and others in both mainstream and Yiddish theatre.
She was born in Romania and came to England as a teenager with her family in the early 1930s. She started her career in her father’s travelling Yiddish theatre company in Romania. Her many roles included five years in the West End stage production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Most of the Jewish communities in the East End have been dispersed in recent decades, and the East End now has a considerable Muslim population. , and the shul actively engaged in interfaith relations through the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum, which includes the large East London Mosque on Whitechapel Road. The synagogue was also regularly visited by historical societies and walking tours, and took part in Open House London.
Leon Silver, a former president of the Nelson Street synagogue, grew up in the neighbourhood, and in his blog postings in recent years has discussed the tensions with local people and efforts to foster dialogue among faith communities A march to the synagogue from Aldgate eight years ago (January 2018) commemorated the East End’s Jewish heritage, and was followed by a multi-faith service of remembrance.
The synagogue was due to celebrate its centenary in 2023, and the architect Maxwell Hutchinson drafted plans to add museum and library space, so that the shul could build on its attraction as a tourist destination and become an historic Jewish centre in the East End.
But, after many years of attempts at renovation, it has fallen into a parlous state of disrepair, despite its rich and history, emblematic of both the history of the East End and of the Jewish community that was once a major part of it.
Today the East London Central Synagogue is daubed with disturbing graffiti, and the area to the immediate east is strewn with litter and its view marred by bins and rubbish from neighbouring premises. Inside, under all the white paint, I imagine there still may be plaques that recall the original donors with donations of 2s 6d, 5 shillings,10s 6d, and even £1 or a guinea (21 shillings).
When news of the pending sale was posted on social media in recent weeks, there were many suggestions that the synagogue should be converted into the Jewish Museum, presenting the history of Jews in the East End.
Yet, no matter whatever happens to the shul after next week’s auction, the Jewish presence in the East End is not coming to an end: the Congregation of Jacob shul is a six-minute walk away to the east, and Sandy’s Row and Bevis Marks Synagogues are a mile to the west.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
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