Why ‘The Odyssey’ is about more than heroes and monsters and looks at the temptations in our own journeys through life

The Odyssey is about more than war, ships and heroics … it is about the temptations along the journey of life … posters at Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge, yesterday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

The Odyssey is one of the greatest stories ever told. It is a core part of the history, mythology and cultural heritage of Greece. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is already becoming one of the greatest films of the 21st century, and is already introducing many people to one of the greatest works of classical literature.

The ancient Greek epic poem by Homer, who also wrote The Iliad, tells the story Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he spends 20 years trying to return home: 10 years are spent fighting the Trojan War, and 10 years are spent travelling back home through the Mediterranean Sea.

Many Greeks are disappointed by the new film, expressing concerns that Greek actors were largely absent from major roles, that Athens was not included in the global promotional tour despite being the birthplace of the story, and that it uses very little Greek language and presents little that is authentic Greek culture. They say that a story so deeply rooted in Greece deserves meaningful Greek involvement.

In response, other Greeks are pointing out that this is Hollywood, not a history class. Indeed, the Odyssey itself is epic poetry and never was intended to be narrative, chronological history. Epic poetry and history have different functions, nor does any cinemagoer expect a Hollywood film to be textbook history.

The film opened in Greece last weekend, and is boasting the highest box office sales of any opening weekend this year. The calls for a boycott just may not be having any effect at all.

Far-right Greek extremists staged a protest outside the cinema hosting the premiere, handing out leaflets claiming the film ‘insults Greek history and civilisation’, condemning the casting choices, and using the slogan ‘Greece Belongs to the Greeks, the Odyssey Belongs to Homer.’ They claimed the film fails to honour Homer’s epic and called on audiences not to watch the film.

The extreme right Ethniko Metopo (Εθνικό Mέτωπο, National Front) used racist and fascist images and slogans in its protests outside cinemas at the weekend. They claimed the film ‘insults our history and culture’ and said: ‘Our lives, our history, and our civilisation will not become black.’
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But, historically, whoever said Helen of Troy was not a black woman, or did not have dark Minoan features? Indeed, who even believes Helen of Troy was a real, historical figure?

Who ever said Helen of Troy did not have dark Minoan hair and features? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have yet to see the film, but hope to see it soon. Christopher Nolan looks like introducing a new generation to Homer, the Odyssey and the Iliad, as he dramatizes and retells the story of Odysseus and his encounters with different types of monsters and temptations as he tries to make his way back home to Ithaca from Troy.

I have encountered my own Cyclops and my own sea monsters in my journey in life too, I am sure, I too have come close to my own Scylla and Charybdis, and I too have been tempted to spend too much time among the lotus eaters.

It is a theme that I imagine is found in every culture. Jonah tries to delay heading off to Nineveh, and endures his own terrifying sea ordeals. When he arrives at Nineveh, the temptations and obstacles continue to divert his attention, and it takes him three full days to cross the city.

We all encounter distractions and temptations along our journeys in life, and Christopher Nolan’s film is one more telling of one of the greatest stories in literature.

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey tell the story of a 20-year search for home (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

In a letter to Christopher Nolan, Herod Priovolos says that like generations of Greeks he grew up with Homer’s story. He says ‘Homer did not sing of Odysseus simply to entertain us with ships, storms, gods and monsters. He told the story because he understood what war, time, distance and loss can do to the human soul.’

And perhaps he is right to point out that the film catches the drama of the Odyssey but does not get to examine the real significance and meaning within the poetry.

Herod Priovolos points out how Odysseus leaves Ithaca as a king, a husband and a father. He returns 20 years later alone, exhausted and disguised as a beggar, carrying the memory of every companion who never made it home.

The monsters are not merely creatures created for spectacle. The Cyclops is power without justice, the Sirens are the beautiful voices that tempt us to abandon our purpose, Circe represents the danger of losing our humanity. Calypso offers Odysseus immortality, but even eternal life becomes a prison when the price is forgetting his wife, his son, his homeland and his own identity.

And, Priovolos continues, Ithaca is not merely an island. ‘Ithaca is the place that remembers you when the world no longer recognises your face. It is the home that remains alive inside you after everything else has been taken away. It is Penelope growing older while she waits. It is Telemachus becoming a man without his father. It is Argos surviving long enough to recognize his master one final time.’

Odysseus is not great simply because he defeats monsters, Priovolos writes. ‘He is great because he is proud, frightened, wounded, clever, imperfect and deeply human. He loses his companions, his youth, his name and 20 years of his life, yet he refuses to forget who he is. When he finally returns, Penelope does not recognize him through strength, glory or appearance. She tests him. Odysseus proves his identity by remembering the bed they built together around the roots of a living olive tree.’

For Priovolos, that is the heart of The Odyssey. Not the battles. Not the ships. Not the monsters. Two people standing before each other after 20 years, asking whether love, memory and identity can survive everything time has done to them.

‘That is why this poem has survived for almost 3,000 years. Every human being is trying to return to something: a home, a person, a lost part of themselves, or the life they had before the world changed them,’ he says.

‘So use Homer’s seas, gods, heroes and monsters. But please understand what you are touching,’ he tells Christopher Nolan and, of course, filmgoers. ‘The Odyssey was never truly about how far a man could travel. It was about how much the world could take from him before he stopped being himself, and whether, after losing almost everything, he could still find his way home.’

Penelope waiting for Odysseus … Μαριάννα Βαλλιάνου, Η επιστροφή, Mariánna Valliánou, ‘The Return’

I am reminded of the poem ‘Ithaka’ in which CP Cavafy transforms Homer’s account of the return of Odysseus to Ithaka. This transformation is a variation on how Dante and Tennyson handle the same theme. They offer an Odysseus who arrives home after a long absence only to find Ithaka less than fully satisfying and who soon makes plans to travel forth a second time.

However, Cavafy answers them by telling Odysseus that arriving in Ithaka is what he is destined for, and that he must keep that always in mind: one’s destiny, the inevitable end of the journey, is a thing to be faced for what it is, without illusions.

The meaning of Ithaka is in the voyage home that it inspired. It is not reaching home or again escaping its limitations once there that should occupy Odysseus so much as those elevated thoughts and rare excitement that are a product of the return voyage.

As Edmund Keeley says, this new perspective is what frees the voyager’s soul of the monsters, obstacles and angry gods, so that when the voyager reaches his Ithaka he will be rich not with what Ithaka has to offer him on his return, but with all that he has gained along the way, including his coming to know that this perspective on things, this unhurried devotion to pleasure and knowledge, is Ithaka’s ultimate value.

Ιθάκη, Κωνσταντίνος Π Καβάφης

Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη,
να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος,
γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον θυμωμένο Ποσειδώνα μη φοβάσαι,
τέτοια στον δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δεν θα βρεις,
αν μέν’ η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή
συγκίνησις το πνεύμα και το σώμα σου αγγίζει.
Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας,
τον άγριο Ποσειδώνα δεν θα συναντήσεις,
αν δεν τους κουβανείς μες στην ψυχή σου,
αν η ψυχή σου δεν τους στήνει εμπρός σου.

Να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος.
Πολλά τα καλοκαιρινά πρωιά να είναι
που με τι ευχαρίστησι, με τι χαρά
θα μπαίνεις σε λιμένας πρωτοειδωμένους
να σταματήσεις σ’ εμπορεία Φοινικικά,
και τες καλές πραγμάτειες ν’ αποκτήσεις,
σεντέφια και κοράλλια, κεχριμπάρια κ’ έβενους,
και ηδονικά μυρωδικά κάθε λογής,
όσο μπορείς πιο άφθονα ηδονικά μυρωδικά
σε πόλεις Aιγυπτιακές πολλές να πας,
να μάθεις και να μάθεις απ’ τους σπουδασμένους.

Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη.
Το φθάσιμον εκεί είν’ ο προορισμός σου.
Aλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει
και γέρος πια ν’ αράξεις στο νησί,
πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στον δρόμο,
μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη.

Η Ιθάκη σ’ έδωσε τ’ ωραίο ταξείδι.
Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόμο.
Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια.

Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δεν σε γέλασε.
Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα,
ήδη θα το κατάλαβες η Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν

Ithaka, Constantine P Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvellous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

– Constantine Cavafy (translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)

Christopher Nolan’s film ‘The Odyssey’ introduces a new generation to the world of classical Greece (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mural on Art Deco cinema highlights the risks to the architectural legacy of George Street in Luton

The mural by Sarah Hodgkins of Charlotte Designs recalls the glory days of the ABC Savoy Cinema in Luton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

My flights between Luton and Dublin this week were both delayed for quite some time this week, and it can be grim experiences sitting around airports for hours, trying to rebook missed coach connections and idling on phones yet trying to keep them charged because Ryanair now demands that all boarding passes must be on phones.

Luton Airport is small and much easier to get through, and unlike many airports the coffee shops stay open until late in the night, which mean that, although airports are never pleasant places in which to spend lost hours, Luton is a good airport to leave from and to arrive back at.

I saw little of Luton early on Thursday morning or in the late hours of Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning, but I have enjoyed my visits to Luton in Bedfordshire in recent weeks, looking for Saint Mary’s Church, the art deco buildings on George Street.

George Street at the junction with Market Hill in Luton … the entire street in on the Heritage at Risk Register (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

George Street, as an entire street in the heart of Luton, has been added to the Heritage at Risk Register by Historic England because it is at risk of being lost as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.

The street, running from Saint Mary’s and Market Hill to Luton’s art deco Town Hall, has 36 Grade II listed buildings. It is the historic heart of Luton and was once the centre of the hat-making industry, but Historic England warns that many of its buildings are ‘now in poor condition’ and the street lacks purpose.

Historic England says George Street lacks ‘a clear function and purpose’ and is ‘hampered by the physical barrier of the ring road’. It says revitalising George Street and helping it evolve to meet the needs of a contemporary town centre is critical to the future of this characterful street, and to revitalising the heritage of Luton’s town centre.

No 27 George Street at the corner of Chapel Lane is an attractive arts and crafts building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

At one end of the street, 27 George Street is at the corner of Chapel Lane and is an attractive arts and crafts building. George Pigott was a butcher there in 1871, but the Pigott family probably had a butcher’s shop at No 27 since at least 1839. The Pigotts were still there in 1898, but Boots the chemists were there by 1903.

A plaque on the Chapel Street return frontage indicates that the present building was built in 1915. The other date indicates that something was established there in 1874 but it cannot refer to the Pigotts or to later tenants, including Boots, founded in 1849, or Hepworths, founded in 1864.

Boots continued to occupy the corner-site building until at least 1960, but the premises were vacant by 1965. J Hepworth tailors had moved there by 1968 and they were still there in 1975. The estate agents Taylors are on the corner site today [2026] , with Mano coffee shop next door.

Plaques on the Chapel Street frontage indicate the building was built, founded or rebuilt in 1874 and 1915 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Back on George Street, one of the most eye-catching delights in the past two years or so is the way the long-derelict ABC Savoy Cinema has been covered in a colourful 1930s-inspired mural by the artist Sarah Hodgkins. The dilapidated building at the heart of the George Street Conservation Area has stood empty and neglected for about quarter of a century. But once it was a stylish venue which the entertainment for generations of people in Luton.

The 1,892-seat cinema opened as the Savoy on 17 October 1938. The building was designed for Associated British Cinemas (ABC) by the architect William Riddell Glen (1885-1950) and built on land leased from the then Luton Corporation. The Art Deco styling was very fashionable at the time and echoed much of the architecture of surrounding buildings, including the Town Hall at the far end of George Street.

The interior was decorated in shades of pink and green, with plush pink carpets and staff sporting a smart green uniform. The Savoy changed its name to the ABC in 1961. It closed in April 1971, was gutted and rebuilt and reopened as a three-screen multiplex in September 1971. It was renamed the Cannon in April 1986. When a new 10-screen Cineworld multiplex opened a short walk down the street in 1998, the Cannon was renamed ABC, and continued for another two years until the three-screen cinema closed its doors for the last time on 23 November 2000.

The ABC Savoy Cinema opened in 1938 but has been vacant since 2000 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The mural at the front of the former cinema includes elements suggested by local residents, with references to Vauxhall Motors, the film ‘Blinded by the Light’, and local singer and songwriter Myles Smith, who was recognised at the BRIT Awards last year (2025).

While the site awaits development, the mural artist Sarah Hodgkins of Charlotte Designs was commissioned to make the cinema frontage more attractive and create a much needed focal point for the area. The aim was to make a sympathetic and colourful façade for the building that complements the wider environment of the town centre, brightening the area and enabling increased footfall and placemaking.

Art Deco emerged as a new style in the 1920s and 1930s. It originated in France and captured the prosperity and glamour of post-World War I modernism and advancements, with its classical influences, geometric motifs, and streamlined architectural styles. Many of the Art Deco values and themes fitted neatly into the requirements for the ABC Cinema in Luton.

The art deco Luton Town Hall is one of 36 Grade II listed buildings on George Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The artist Sarah Hodgkins painted the scene in March 2025. She is an award-winning mural artist, with over 20 years of practice and more than 750 hand-painted murals completed for businesses, councils, hospitals, schools and private individuals. She is based in Northamptonshire and works throughout the UK under the name Charlotte Designs, the business she founded in 2005. She talked to the local community about what they would like to see and what themes would be of interest to them. Her design features a city street with a park in the background, and there are stylised clouds and an aeroplane.

The centre section is essentially the front of a 1930s cinema, with Art Deco architecture and steps down. There are two posters on either side of the doors, one shows a poster for ‘Blinded by the Light’, a film made in Luton in 2019 and featuring many scenes on George Street; the other is a poster by Myles Smith, a Luton based artist.

The section along George Street West is more of an evening scene, representing the use of the area as both a daytime and evening hub. It shows a jazz band and dancers, a nod to both the Jazz age and to the Luton carnival. The mural also includes a nod to the new Luton Town Football Club stadium. The upper section features a sunrise image, a symbol of hope that featured widely in Art Deco art. The sunrise image is flanked by traditional Art Deco styling and proudly has Luton as its main feature text. The fascias are purposefully simple in their design so they do not overshadow the upper and lower murals. They complement the mural’s style and colour palette and show both former names of the cinema, the Savoy and ABC Cinema. Both these elements were printed and installed by The Treacle Factory.

However, behind the new façade, the building remains empty and forlorn since the ABC Savoy closed over 25 years ago, awaiting longer-term development. The age of the building means that there is asbestos internally, which requires specialist removal, a time-consuming and expensive process.

Before leaving Luton that afternoon, I sat in Mano Coffee at 25 George Street, next door to Traynor’s estate agents in the former arts and crafts shop of Pigott’s and Boots on the corner of Chapel Lane. But there is more to discover about the architectural heritage of Luton, and more to say in the days to come, hopefully, about Saint Mary’s Church, the 900-year-old parish church in the centre of Luton.

Mano Café and Taylor’s estate agents on George Street, Luton, on the corner with Chapel Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The planned demolition of Terenure synagogue is the loss of another of my childhood landmarks

Terenure Synagogue on Rathfarnham Road was built in 1952-1953 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I have often said in jest that I was born between a synagogue and a laundry and across the road from a cinema.

But Terenure Laundry – still celebrated in trade union lore for a 14-week strike led by Mai Clifford – closed soon after I was born on Rathfarnham Road. The site at 14-18 Rathfarnham Road was later the premises of the Sunday World, and now it’s the site of Lidl in Terenure.

The Classic Cinema was at 11-13 Rathfarnham Road, across the road from both the laundry and the synagogue. It opened in 1938, and when it closed in 1976, Albert Kelly transferred the name of the Classic to the former Kenilworth Cinema in Harold’s Cross – but it too is long gone.

Now it looks as though the third landmark that defined that stretch of Rathfarnham Road where I was born is about to disappear too, and that Dublin’s largest synagogue is soon to be demolished.

Gordon Deegan reported in The Irish Times yesterday (18 September 2025) that An Coimisiún Pleanála (ACP), the Irish Planning Commission, has approved a plan to demolish Dublin’s largest synagogue to make way for a 60-unit apartment scheme.

The Dublin Hebrew Congregation endorses the redevelopment, but the plan has been opposed by some local residents who say the area would is going to lose an important historical landmark. ACP has granted planning permission to Granbrind Terenure Ltd for the apartment block scheme on the 0.54 ha site on Rathfarnham Road, Terenure, where the synagogue and has been since 1952.

ACP granted planning permission after concluding that the proposal ‘would provide for a compact and sustainable form of urban development at a highly accessible location, would not seriously injure the visual or residential amenities of the area and would not adversely impact the character of the area.’

A letter on behalf of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation in July 2024 gave full support to the application. The signatories to the letter include the Chief Rabbi of Ireland, the Very Revd Yoni Wieder, whose inauguration had taken place in the synagogue two months earlier.

Dublin City Council granted planning permission for the scheme in April, but the development was stalled after an appeal by the Terenure Residents’ Association, Wasdale Park residents and Greenmount Lawns residents.

The residents who oppose the demolition of the synagogue site say the landmark building with its five Stars of David and stained-glass windows would be a huge loss to the history of the Jewish community living in the area. They argue the proposed apartment blocks would result be an overbearing and intrusive presence and overshadow adjoining properties.

As part of a 105-page inspector’s report, the ACP inspector Ms Mary Kennelly agreed ‘that the demolition of these buildings is appropriate’. She said the synagogue building ‘is not a protected structure and has not been assessed as being of architectural or historical significance and is unsuitable for repurposing and reuse’.

She also said it was intended to reuse the stained-glass windows in a future synagogue site and it was accepted these would not be suitable for use in other community buildings. Ms Kennelly said the proposed demolition and redevelopment of the site would benefit the community. A report said the new development would provide new housing units in an area of such high population growth, and within close proximity of the city centre.

A spokesperson for the Dublin Hebrew Congregation told The Irish Times last year it planned to move to a more suitably sized facility as the space was too large for its needs.

Five Stars of David over 10 squared panels on Terenure Synagogue facing onto Rathfarnham Road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The synagogue is a distinctive building in the Terenure and Rathfarnham areas of south Dublin, clearly visible and identifiable with windows with five Stars of David over 10 squared panels. It was designed by the architect Wilfred Cantwell (1921-2000) and was dedicated in 1953.

I had been born a few doors away, at No 28 Rathfarnham Road, and lived part of my childhood at No 104 Rathfarnham Road. My father was born in Rathmines and spent his childhood in Terenure. Although my parents lived for much of their life in Harold’s Cross, they later lived in Rathfarnham Wood.

The Terenure synagogue at No 32-34 Rathfarnham Road was designed by the Irish architect Wilfred Cantwell and dates back to a meeting in 1936, when it was agreed to set up a synagogue in the Rathmines, Rathgar or Terenure area to cater for families in those suburbs who found it was too far to walk on Saturdays to the synagogues on Adelaide Road or at Greenville Hall on the South Circular Road.

The shul started in rented rooms at 6 Grosvenor Place, Rathmines, and moved when No 52 Grosvenor Road was bought in 1940. At Rosh Hashanah, 4 October 1948, the congregation moved from Rathmines to a Nissen hut in the grounds of ‘Leoville’ on Rathfarnham Road, bought a few years earlier for £1,490 on behalf of the congregation by Woulfe Freedman and Erwin Goldwater.

Building work on the new synagogue began in August 1952, shortly after I was born, and it was completed and dedicated on 30 August 1953.

During his career, the architect Wilfrid Cantwell worked with Michael Scott, alongside Kevin Roche, Kevin Fox and Robin Walker, and worked on Bus Arús, Dublin. He later worked with JN Kidney before setting up his own practice (1947-1975). He attained distinction in the area of church architecture, particularly in the years immediately after Vatican II. From 1976 until he retired in 1993, he specialised as a consultant in church design.

Cantwell said his new synagogue in Terenure met the committee’s specifications for a building that would ‘cost less than half the normal place, look as if it cost the full amount and be an example of good modern design.’ It was praised for its ‘original, modern, commanding and attractive design.’

The ‘master builder’ of the synagogue was the Dublin timber merchant Sam Noyek, who built the synagogue with a capacity for 600 people.

Terenure Synagogue was supported by or attracted a number of Jewish families to this part of Terenure and Rathfarnham, including the Leon, Citron, Lazarus, Gafson, Khan and Davis families who lived on Rathfarnham Road.

In typical Dublin wit, some members of the Adelaide Road synagogue, which was regarded as more middle class, referred to the new synagogue opposite the Classic Cinema as the ‘cinema-gogue.’

A Church of Ireland Interfaith Conference visiting Terenure Synagogue on Rathfarnham Road, Dublin

The shul was set on fire on Wednesday 9 February 1966. Several Siffrei Torah were destroyed, and the shul itself was very badly damaged. The Nissen hut that had been turned into a function hall was quickly converted back into a shul, and no Shabbat services were missed.

The newly refurbished synagogue was rededicated on Sunday 26 May 1968. Its features include the striking stained-glass windows on the north and south walls by Stanley Tomlin, who began his career in the Harry Clarke Studios in 1932.

At extraordinary meetings of the Terenure and Adelaide Road congregations in January 1999, the two congregations agreed to merge. It was agreed that the Adelaide Road Synagogue would be sold, and that some of the proceeds of the sale would be used to build a new synagogue complex, including a new mikveh and a community centre, on the grounds at Rathfarnham Road.

From then on, the Terenure Synagogue hosted the members of the former synagogue on Adelaide Road. This arrangements continued until 15 December 2004, when both congregations held simultaneous extraordinary general meetings and agreed to merge as the new Dublin Hebrew Congregation.

The agreed new synagogue was never built, and Terenure Synagogue is the only major Orthodox synagogue in the Republic of Ireland.

Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, said the decision to sell the Terenure synagogue is not so much ‘a story of decline’ as one of changing patterns of practice among Jews in Ireland. ‘As with most religions, attendance at services is not as great as it used to be,’ he told Patsy McGarry of The Irish Times in May 2023.

Indeed, despite widespread reports of decline, the Jewish population in Ireland is growing. The 2022 census shows there were 2,193 Jewish people in Ireland, a drop since the figure of 2,557 in 2016. But both figures are higher than the figure of 1,984 in 2011, and other statistics show the Jewish population in Ireland may even be higher.

The Institute for Jewish Population Research, which uses four key definitions to describe the size of the Jewish population in different countries, offers these figures for the Jewish population in Ireland: the ‘core’ Jewish population, 2,700; population with Jewish parents, 3,348; enlarged Jewish population, 3,966; the ‘Law of Return’ Jewish population, 4,644.

Much of the steady increase is attributed to employees of multinational companies working in Ireland. Maurice Cohen said at the time, however, that the upkeep of the Terenure synagogue is ‘very expensive’ and figures for attendance at services ‘have gone down dramatically.’ This is exacerbated as ‘the older generation passes away while younger people were less likely to attend. It is an issue Judaism is debating.’

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

The former Kodak building in Rathmines remains an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture in Dublin

The Kodak Building has been a landmark building on the corner of Lower Rathmines Road and Blackberry Lane for almost a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

When I was staying in Rathmines last week during a very brief family visit to Dublin, I took another look at some interesting late 19th and early 20th century buildings in Rathmines, including the former YMCA building on Rathmines Road, Kensington Lodge around the corner from it on Grove Park, the former Belfast Bank on a prominent corner with Rathgar Road, and the former Kodak building, a listed Art Deco building.

For almost a century, the Kodak Building or Kodak House has been a landmark building on the corner of Lower Rathmines Road and Blackberry Lane and when it was built its design marked an important ‘modern’ moment in Irish architecture. It was designed by the architects Donnelly, Moore and Keatinge in 1930 and built in 1932 and was originally the factory and warehouse for Kodak Ireland.

Art Deco emerged as a design aesthetic in France in the early 20th century and was widely popularised in the 1920s and 1930s. It informed the design of many iconic 20th century iconic buildings, including the Empire State Building in New York.

Many examples of art deco architecture Dublin have been lost, including the Theatre Royal. But others have survived, including the Kodak Building and two other significant Art Deco buildings in Rathmines: the Stella Cinema, designed by Higginbotham and Stafford in 1923; and the Post Office on Upper Rathmines Road, designed by William Henry Howard Cooke (1881-1977), built in 1932-1934, and opened in 1935.

The founder of Kodak, George Eastman, ran ‘an image-conscious company’ and wanted the company’s building in Dublin to disguise the ‘raw factory’ within. Kodak hired Donnelly Moore and Keatinge, a partnership formed by Robert Donnelly, James Moore and William Sedgwick Keatinge in 1925. The new building was built by McLaughlin & Harvey.

One critical commentator said the building looks like ‘a stray project from Miami Beach that found itself cast adrift in Dublin’. On the other hand, when the Twentieth Century Society named the Kodak Building as its ‘building of the month’ in August 2019, it said that ‘the building itself, despite having its once-cream render painted white, still stands out against Dublin’s traditional red brick streets’.

Donnelly Moore and Keatinge designed a building that is made of concrete and supported by a steel structural grid, with horizontal steel windows that were embedded in the concrete walls, and with ‘a squat but imposing tower with vertical slit windows as its central feature’. It was said to ‘conjur[e up] a sense of defensive space as well as abiding by the symmetrical classical language of pediment, pilaster and entablature.’

Some of the machine-age ornamentation of Kodak House remains intact, including the vertical lines on the tower, the zig-zags facing the street, the strong lines leading to the parapet and the ziggurat-type finial. Other art deco touches include the vertical lines on the tower, the stacked antenna-like rectangles, the small areas of fluting around the parapet and the pilasters or projecting columns, and the minimal ornament.

On each street façade, the tower recedes behind the screen, symmetrical with multi-pane windows set deep between the thick, plain pilasters. The zigzag textures and plain bands framing the windows add further texture, and the windows are an indication of its past as a factory.

The partnership of Donnelly Moore and Keatinge lasted until 1937, when the three architects went their separate ways, forming their own practices. One of the original architects, William Sedgewick Keatinge (1887-1964), made alterations modifications to the building in 1949-1951.

The building remained the Kodak headquarters in Ireland for 50 years before they moved to Dun Laoghaire in 1982. Kodak sold the building to Quirke Lynch Ltd that continued the photographic processing business for almost two more decades.

Quirke Lynch decided to concentrate their photographic processing operation to the ground floor only in 1997 and major renovations were undertaken to restore the upper floor and the roof of the building.

Paul Keogh Architects carried out a complete refurbishment of the building in 1999. While the exterior is faithful to the original design, there have been some interventions in the interior, such as a new roof with a curved northlight that allowed a mezzanine level to be added inside. The renovation was recognised with an RIAI award and a Glen Dimplex Design award in 2002.

Kodak House now houses an advertising agency and other businesses. It is an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture in Dublin and is a List 2 building in the Dublin City development plan. Despite having its once-cream render painted white, it still stands out against Dublin’s traditional red brick streets. It remains one of the brightest, most unusual 20th century buildings in Dublin.

Art Deco did not have a huge impact in Ireland, although the style had its moments, and the Carlton and Savoy cinemas on O’Connell Street and the Tivoli Cinema in Francis Street used Art Deco.

Other buildings in the Art Deco style in Dublin include the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation at 23 Kildare Street, designed by James Rupert Boyd Barrett; the Gas Building on D’Olier Street, now home to School of Nursing and Midwifery of Trinity College Dublin; the DIT building on Cathal Brugha Street; the former Deluxe Cinema on Camden Street; and the bathing shelters along the Bull Wall in Dollymount, designed by Herbert Simms.

Art Deco housing designs included: Chancery House, a housing development near the Four Courts designed by Herbert Simms; the houses built in 1938 on Wasdale Park, between Terenure and Rathgar; and an Art Deco house on the Templeogue Road once known as Konstanz and built in 1939 for Stephen Carroll Held – it is known in Templeogue and Terenure as the ‘German house’ because Hermann Gortz, a Nazi spy, used it as a safe house during World War II.

But more about these Art Deco houses and buildings, hopefully, after another visit to Dublin.

Kodak House remains an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture in Dublin Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Sam King and Alf Shipman: two East End violinists who founded a cinema chain

The Rex Cinema in Berkhamsted … a reminder of the cinema chain built by Alfred Shipman and Samuel King (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During a recent visit to Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, the joyful restoration of the Rex Cinema reminded me of two successful 20th century cinema magnates, Alfred Shipman (1890-1956) and Samuel King (1890-1973), who founded the Shipman & King cinema chain that had more than 40 cinemas at its peak.

In recent weeks I have written about Oscar Deutsch (1893-1941), who founded the Odeon cinema chain – urban lore claimed the name Odeon was an acronym for ‘Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation.’ Deutsch was also a Jewish philanthropist, an active supporter of many charities, and was President of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation, Singers Hill Synagogue from 1932 to 1940.

The story of Shipman and King and the success of their cinema chain is a similar story, but in this caseit is the story of the sons of Polish immigrants who grew up in the Jewish East End of London.

The Shipman & King cinema chain was founded by Shipman and King in the immediate aftermath of World War I and family stories say they began the chain in the back of a pub.

Sam King was a teacher and an accomplished violinist who played in the orchestra pits in London cinemas. Alf Shipman was an entrepreneur who was buying up cinemas that were struggling financially in the aftermath of World War I.

King’s Jewish family fled pogroms in Poland, when it was part of the Russian Empire, and their original surname may have been Koenig – the Latin forms of the name, Rex, was later used as the name of many of his cinemas. He was born Samuel Simon King in Mile End, the son of Lewis King, a cobbler, and Kate (Goldberger). He grew up in the East End, attended Stepney Jewish School, and trained as a teacher at Goldsmith’s College. Shipman was a Russian-born Polish immigrant, and later he married Sam’s sister, Sadie King.

When King and Shipman met at the end of World War I, they were both playing the violin in the Queen’s Light Orchestra at evening showings of silent films. Sam was a teacher during the day, while Alf was a full-time musician.

The friends met for a drink in 1919 in the Crown Hotel, Hailsham, near Eastbourne on the south coast. When they spotted the barn in the back, they rented a projector converted the barn and started putting on screenings in their first cinema venture.

Business grew quickly, and they registered Shipman & King Cinemas Ltd in 1920. Sam gave up teaching to manage the financial side of the business and the day-to-day running of the business, while Alf was the entrepreneur, and Alf’s brother Mick was the booking manager. The partnership would last until Alf Shipman died in 1956.

Henry Coussens was the architect for their first purpose-built cinema, the Pavilion Hailsham. It opened on Monday 28 November 1921, with a capacity audience watching Charlie Chaplin in The Kid. By 1926, there were eight acquired silent cinemas and one purpose built within the S&K circuit, overseen by AE Randle. The next new cinema built for Shipman and King followed in 1930. A policy was adopted not to mimic the large circuits, but to acquire an existing cinema, refurbish it and then to build another nearby. The company preferred locations away from the densely populated inner cities, favouring middle class areas in the south of England.

Sam and Alf saw their business rapidly expand in the 1930s. However, with prudent management they avoided over commit acquiring sites and operated strict budgets on both the building and fitting out their cinemas. At the same time, Oscar Deutsch (Odeon) and John Maxwell (ABC) often waited for independent operators to ran into financial trouble and then stepped in to snap up newly-built cinemas. There are examples where the reverse happened when S&K would open a cinema that was intended to be an Odeon which may suggest a good working relationship with Oscar Deutsch.

Part of the success of Otto Deutsch was his choice of architects to design his Odeon cinemas, including Harry Weedon (1887-1970), who also refurbished Singers Hill Synagogue. In a similar vein, Shipman and King employed architects such as Robert Cromie (1887-1971), David Evelyn Nye (1906-1986), Henry Coussens, Howis & Belcham, Leslie H Kemp and Frederick E Tasker.

These architects helped Shipman and King build up a portfolio of moderately-sized quality cinemas that could equal city centre cinemas in the three major circuits in both appearance and comfort. The Shipman & King cinemas had lavish art deco interiors, most had balconies, many had car parks, and some also had restaurants.

Nye designed the Rex cinema in Berkhamsted in the art deco style in 1936. The Rex was built on the site of Egerton House, an Elizabethan mansion once known for its literary association with JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, and the Llewelyn Davies family. Egerton House was demolished in 1937 and the Rex opened in 1938.

When Alf Shipman died in 1956, Sam King’s son, Peter became a director. Sam King’s son Peter King went on to work with Paramount and EMI before founding Screen International in 1975. He died in 2018. Meanehile, the Shipman and King circuit was bought in 1965 by the Grade Organisation, which in turn was taken over by EMI. After years of bingo conversions and closures what was left of these cinemas came under the control of Cannon Cinemas.

Today, just a few former S & K sites remain. The first purpose-built S & K cinema, the Pavilion in Hailsham, has been rescued from a derelict condition and has been beautifully restored. It marked its centenary in 2021. The Everyman in Esher is now a multiplex. The Rex in Berkhamsted closed after 50 years in 1988 and became derelict. The building was listed Grade II by English Heritage. Following a campaign to save the Rex, the cinema re-opened in 2004. Today, it is an independent cinema, screening films 362 days a year.

The life and legacy of Sam King is told in Cinema King, a book by his granddaughter Jenny King. She recounts King’s life and fondly remembers her grandfather as ‘gentle, intelligent and dignified’.

Shabbat Shalom

‘Oscar Deutsch Entertained Our Nation’ – and also rebuilt synagogues

The Odeon Cinema chain was founded in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch … was Odeon an acronym for ‘Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation’? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Ever since my childhood, I wondered why cinemas had names that evoked the classics. I was born across the street from the Classic Cinema on Rathfarnham Road and a few doors away from Terenure Synagogue. The proximity of those two landmark buildings led the members of the more salubrious Adelaide Road synagogue to jest in the 1950s and the 1960s about the ‘cinema-gogue.’

But, apart from the Classic Cinema in Terenure, other cinemas in Dublin with names that evoked the classics and classic theatre included the Corinthian and the Adelphi in the city centre, and (I suppose) the Stella in Rathmines, recently named one of the world’s 20 most beautiful cinemas.

For people who have grown up in England, the big cinema chain with a classically-inspired name was the Odeon Cinema chain founded in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch (1893-1941), and the London flagship cinema, the Odeon on Leicester Square, opening in 1937.

Words such as theatre, drama and tragedy are derived from Greek and the cultural life of classical Athens. The ancient Greek ᾨδεῖον (ōideion) means ‘a place for singing’, and the original Odeons were the popular but smaller amphitheatres of ancient Greece. They include the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, built on the south slopes of the Acropolis in 161 CE by Herodes Atticus and today it remains the premiere showcase for the performing arts in Athens.

The Odeon or Theatre of Herodes Atticus on the southern slopes of the Acropolis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The name Odeon had been appropriated by cinemas in France and Italy by the 1920s. Mel Mindelsohn, a grocery shop owner who was an early business partner of Otto Deutsch, suggested using the name Odeon after spotting it in Tunis. Years later, however, it was suggested the name Odeon was an abbreviation of ‘Oscar Deutsch Entertains our Nation’.

Oscar Deutsch made the name his own in cinemas throughout Britain, so much so that people claimed the word Odeon was an acronym for ‘Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation.’

Oscar Deutsch was born in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, on 12 August 1893, the son of Leopold Deutsch, a successful Hungarian Jewish scrap metal merchant. Leopold came to England from Hungary in the 1900s with his wife Leah Cohen, a Jewish emigrant from Poland. He went into business with his cousin, Adolph Brenner, and Deutsch & Brenner went on to have a number of strip metal factories and rolling mills.

After attending King Edward VI Five Ways Grammar School, Oscar began working at his father’s metal firm in Birmingham. In 1925, He rented his first cinemas in Wolverhampton and Coventry in 1925 and started exhibiting subsequent runs of films. Then, in 1928, he opened his first cinema in Brierley Hill, Dudley.

Oscar Deutsch had 26 Odeons by 1933 and ‘Odeon’ was fast becoming a household word, used interchangeably with ‘cinema’ in some parts of England until after World War II.

The Odeon on Tottenham Court Road, London … Odeon cinemas were seen as comfortable and respectable (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The cinema-opening pace accelerated after Deutsch met the architect Harry Weedon (1887-1970) in 1932. Weedon had been in Birmingham making alterations to a factory run by Deutsch’s father Leopold and the cinema boss hired him to work on interiors for an Odeon in Warley, Staffordshire.

It was the start of a prolific partnership. They opened five new cinemas in 1933, and 16 the year after. Another 33 opened in 1936 – and the same again in 1937. Weedon expanded his team of six staff into an office employing 140. Turnarounds were fast.

Odeons became known for their art deco architecture, first used in the Odeon in Kingstanding to a design by Cecil Clavering, who worked for Harry Weedon. Clavering designed three further Odeons, at Sutton Coldfield, Colwyn Bay and Scarborough. They were seen as ‘one masterpiece after the other’ and they were considered ‘the finest expressions of the Odeon circuit style’.

Clavering stunned Weedon in 1935 when he resigned and moved to the Office of Works. Clavering was replaced by Robert Bullivant and Weedon was then commissioned by Deutsch to oversee the design of the entire chain.

The striking Kingstanding Odeon (1935) was followed by the flagship Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square, London, which opened in November 1937 with The Prisoner of Zenda. By 1937, there were 250 Odeon cinemas, making Odeon one of the three major cinema chains.

Although they went up fast, Deutsch’s cinemas were by no means slapdash. For many of the towns and cities around the Midlands and along the south coast, where most were built, they were the most exciting and modern pieces of architecture in the area.

Odeon cinemas were seen as more comfortable and respectable for middle-class filmgoers than those of the two other chains, Associated British Cinemas (ABC), which also used the Ritz name, and Gaumont-British Cinemas.

The former Odeon cinema in Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

In his private life, Oscar Deutsch was also a pious Jew and a highly-regarded Jewish philanthropist in Birmingham and the Midlands. He was the President of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation, Birmingham’s main synagogue on Singers Hill, from 1932 to 1940.

From 1935, he had his head office in London from 1935 and lived at the Dorchester Hotel. However each week he came home to Birmingham on Friday afternoons to be with his family, and to worship at Singers Hill Synagogue.

The grand synagogue, now a Grade II-listed building, underwent a refit in 1937 to expand its capacity under the guidance of Oscar Deutsch, who used his own cinema architect to remodel the interior. The synagogue was extended by the architect Harry Weedon, with Oscar Deutsch raising or donating much of the funds.

Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham … Oscar Deutsch was President of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation from 1932 to 1940 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Deutsch was also a major financial backer of rebuilding and enlarging the Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue. The synagogue was reconsecrated by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Joseph Hertz, on 1 September 1937 and was formally opened by Oscar Deutsch.

As the Nazis tightened their grip on power in 1930s, Deutsch worked on behalf of Jewish refugees from Germany. He was a member of the management committee of Saint Mark’s Hospital, London, and the County Homes for Cancer.

A bomb landed on his home in 1941, he was blown out of bed and Oscar Deutsch never recovered. He died of cancer of the liver on 5 December 1941. Later, his widow Lily sold the Odeon chain to J Arthur Rank and it became part of the Rank Organisation, who also bought, but managed separately, Gaumont-British Cinemas. The Odeon cinema chain he founded remains Europe’s biggest.

The former Odeon cinema in York retains its distinctive architectural style (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Shabbat Shalom

Queensway Methodist Church in Bletchley was built in 1908 but has a story dating back to 1813

Queensway Methodist Church is the main Methodist church in Bletchley (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Queensway Methodist Church is the main Methodist church in Bletchley, a constituent town of Milton Keynes. Bletchley is in the south-west of Milton Keynes, and the town is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley.

Bletchley is best known for Bletchley Park, the headquarters of the codebreakers during World War II and now a major tourist attraction.

Queensway is the main shopping street in Bletchley. Bletchley Road was renamed Queensway after a royal visit in 1966 and part of it was redeveloped as Stanier Square. This area became the new high street in Bletchley with wide pavements where there were once front gardens.

Before Bletchley Road was renamed Queensway in 1966, Queensway Methodist Church was known as Bletchley Road Methodist Church. But the history of the church goes back to 1813, when a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was first built on the High Street in Bletchley in 1813.

The Methodist Chapel on the High Street was rebuilt in 1845 and was refurbished in 1882, with new seating for at a cost of £155. A site for a new church was bought in Bletchley Road in 1907 from a Mr Lee and the trustees of the Duncombe Estate, and the Methodist trustees set up a committee in 1908 to build a church with seating for 300.

The new church was designed by the Birmingham architect Ewen Harper at an estimated cost of £1,851 10s.

Ewen Harper (1853-1920) was born in Darlaston, Staffordshire, on 31 May 1853 and was articled to David Smith & Son in Birmingham in 1870. He also attended Birmingham School of Art. He was awarded the Queen’s Medal in 1872 and won a South Kensington Art Master’s prize in 1875, having been a teacher of science and art for some years while studying architecture.

Harper established his own practice at 27 Bennett’s Hill, Birmingham, in 1875. He was in partnership with his brother, James Alfred Henry Harper (1866-1952), from 1897 as Ewen & J Alfred Harper, also known as Ewen Harper, Brother & Co, at Ruskin Chambers, 191 Corporation Street, Birmingham.

The Harper brothers were fervent Methodists, and most of their work was in the Birmingham area. As well as designing many commercial, industrial, public and domestic buildings, they designed a large number of non-conformist churches.

Ewen Harper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1907. When he retired in 1919, his son Leonard Ewen Harper (1886-1954) became a partner in the practice. Ewen Harper died in Birmingham on 5 February 1920. The firm continued as Ewen Harper, Brother & Co, until 1937.

Works by Ewen and J Alfred Harper include: the Wesleyan Chapel, Willenhall (1889); Hart Memorial United Methodist Chapel, Gravelly Hill (1890); the Wesleyan Chapel, King’s Norton (1891); Wolverton Methodist Church (1892); the Baptist Church, the Green, Stafford (1895); the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Waterloo Road, Smethwick (1896); Headless Cross Wesleyan Methodist Church, Redditch (1897); the Mission Hall, Hockley (1897); Friends’ Institute, Balsall Heath (1897); Birmingham Town Mission, Tindal Street, Birmingham (1897); Bournville Almshouses (1897); Ruskin Buildings, Corporation Street, Birmingham (1899); the former Methodist Central Hall, Birmingham (1900-1903); the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Llandrindod Wells, Wales (1903); and the Methodist New Connection Church, Blackheath, Rowley Regis (1904).

The former Methodist Church in Wolverton is one of the four major Grade II listed buildings in the town.

The Methodist church in Bletchley was designed by the Birmingham architect Ewen Harper (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

By 1909, 250 circulars had been sent out seeking subscriptions for the new Methodist church in Bletchley. The foundation stone was laid on 10 July 1909, with music from the Luton Town Band, and singing by the Wolverton and Woburn Sands choirs. There was a similar ceremony at the official opening then church by the Revd William Perkins in November 1909.

Meanwhile, the older Methodist chapel was sold in 1912 to Barber’s Picture Palaces. It became a popular entertainment venue during World War I, when a large number of troops were based in the town.

A recreation room known as ‘The Hut’ was built at the back of Bletchley Road Methodist Church in 1919, providing accommodation for a Sunday School and social functions. A wooden hut in the grounds was used by the Methodist Girl Guides from 1934.

At the outbreak of World War II, hundreds of evacuees arrived in Bletchley and ‘The Hut’ became the Rest Centre, or Bletchley Refugee Reception Centre. The large vestry room was also used in the early months of the World War II to cope with the evacuees arriving in the town.

For the most part the evacuees received a genuine welcome in the town. But when the hut began to be used as the ‘Bletchley Refugee Reception Centre,’ the notices were ripped down.

The wooden hut was destroyed by fire in 1955. The foundation stones for a new Sunday school hall were laid in July 1961, and it was built alongside the church.

When Bletchley Road was renamed Queensway after a royal visit in 1966, Bletchley Road Methodist Church was renamed Queensway Methodist Church.

As for the cinema in the former Methodist chapel in Bletchley, it was known successively as the King George Cinema and the Picture Palace, and then became the County Cinema in 1932. County Cinemas were taken over by the Oscar Deutsch chain of Odeon cinemas in 1941.

The cinema closed in 1957. The building was empty and unused when it was demolished ca 1972, and the Durrans Court housing development was built on the site.

The Revd Edson Edson Dube is the Methodist minister in Bletchley and Superintendent Minister of the Milton Keynes Methodist Circuit. Queensway is grouped with the Freeman Memorial Church and Newton Longville Free Church. Sunday worship in Queensway Methodist Church is at 10:30 am and 2:30 pm. Weekday church activities include ‘Queensway Toddlers’, prayer, Bible study and fellowship meetings, coffee mornings with books and fellowship, and Bible study meetings.

Bletchley Road Methodist Church was renamed Queensway Methodist Church in 1966 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Singers Hill Synagogue, Birmingham, is England’s oldest functioning ‘cathedral synagogue’

Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham is the oldest still-functioning ‘cathedral synagogue’ in England (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Singers Hill Synagogue is the most important and influential synagogue in Birmingham. It is home to the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation and has been the focal point for Jewish life in Birmingham for almost 170 years.

Singers Hill Synagogue is the oldest still-functioning ‘cathedral synagogue’ in England. It stands on the corner of Blucher Street and Gough Street, less than ten minutes’ walk from New Street Station and the Bull Ring in Birmingham. An outstandingly beautiful building, it was built in 1856, and was recently awarded English Heritage’s prestigious award for the ‘Most Improved Place of Worship in the West Midlands.’

Due to economic growth and the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham attracted many people from other parts of England and other countries, including Jewish immigrants. Many of these new arrivals included Jewish immigrants from Germany, the Netherlands and Poland.

By 1851, there were 780 Jews in Birmingham, of whom about a quarter were recent arrivals from Poland and Russia. They were active mainly in many areas of economic life, and these patterns of migration and growth mean that Birmingham’s Jewish heritage is largely Victorian.

Singers Hill Synagogue was built to replace the Severn Street Synagogue, designed in 1823-1827 by the architect Richard Tutin, and the rival congregation established in Wrottesley Street in 1853. Unity was restored in 1855, and the two congregations united with the opening of the synagogue in Singers Hill in 1856. The synagogue was consecrated on 24 September 1856 by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Nathan Adler.

Singers Hill Synagogue was designed by the leading Birmingham architect of the day, Henry Richard Yeoville Yardley Thomason (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The synagogue was designed by the leading Birmingham architect of the day, Henry Richard Yeoville Yardley Thomason (1826-1901), who also designed Birmingham Council House and Art Gallery.

Thomason had been a pupil of Charles Edge (1801-1867), the architect who completed Birmingham’s neo-classical Town Hall after the original architects, Hanson and Welch, went bankrupt. Thomason set up his own independent practice around 1853.

Thomason was a fan of Italian Renaissance architecture. His original plans for Singers Hill, including rare colour-wash decorative schemes for the Ark or Aron haKodesh, survive in Birmingham City Archives, and were particularly valuable during modern restoration work.

Externally his plans featured a portico with a rose window in the entrance gable, flanked by to projecting wings to form the entrance courtyard. Tsurface is of confident red and yellow brick.

The interior combines Romanesque and Neoclassical styles with Italianate detailing, based on the classic Basilica plan. The mahogany central bimah or reading desk and the mahogany Aron haKodesh or ark were clearly visible to all as natural light streamed in over the clerestory. The original cast and gilded gas chandeliers were hanging between the beautifully gilded capitals of the classical columns.

Singers Hill is built of red brick with stone dressings. The complex includes two houses for the resident ministers, the whole forming three sides of a quadrangle around a courtyard. In the central range, the generous vestibule lined with donors’ plaques is set back behind an arcaded porch with an enormous wheel window above.

Inside, the main prayer hall is built on a basilica plan. This plan would become a hallmark of the ‘cathedral’ synagogues of the later the 19th century. These were Victorian, highly ornate, with seating capacity around 1,000, and with a strong choral tradition, and now they are often heritage-protected.

The mahogany Aron haKodesh or Ark is set in an apse in the east wall and is backlit from above by three round-headed windows separated by Corinthian pilasters, in a composition probably inspired by John Davies’s London New Synagogue, opened in 1838.

The ark surround was altered later, but the original semi-circular marble duhan or ark platform, decorated with blue, yellow and gold mosaic, was revealed during renovation in 2014-2015, when the later timber platform built over it was removed.

The Victorian ner tamidor ‘eternal light’ was taken down and replaced by the present ‘Aladdin’s lamp’ in the 1960s.

Three stained-glass windows behind the Ark date from 1856. These are worked in a rich diaper pattern with the Luhot (Ten Commandments) featured in the central window. The fine red and blue glass in the west rose window also survives, but the figurative stained glass on the long walls is a recent addition, replacing simple leaded lights.

The new windows are executed by PA Feeny and DB Taunton of Hardman Studios of Birmingham (1956-1963), a leading stained-glass studio associated with AWN Pugin and the Gothic Revival in church architecture. These windows are unusual in their depictions of human forms – rare but not unknown in Jewish art. The subjects range from the traditional Bible stories and holidays to contemporary themes such as the ‘Emancipation of the Jews,’ ‘World Aid to Israel’ and the ‘Emergence of Israel.’

The gallery is supported on three sides on a superimposed order of columns of Bath stone, in a manner that has been characterised as ‘Gibbesian.’ The columns are set base-to-capital, with Corinthian capitals above and foliated cushion capitals below, all richly gilded. The gallery has box-fronts but the original low ornamental wrought-iron mehitzah or partition was removed in the 1930s.

Singers Hill retains its original and most splendid ornamental gas chandeliers. A fire in the 1870s was caused by overheating due to the presence of 336 gas lighting jets. Temperatures regularly reached 31°C in the gallery, causing some women to faint on Yom Kippur. Ventilators were installed, and in 1904 the gasoliers were converted to electricity.

Following major repairs and renovations, the synagogue was reconsecrated on 1 September 1912. It was rebuilt once again in the 1930s and was rededicated on 29 August 1937.

Under the influence of Reform thinking, the bimah was dismantled in 1937 and replaced by a combined Ark-bimah-pulpit arrangement at the east end, with a choir gallery above, a move that accentuated the cathedral-like axis of the building.

Oscar Deutsch (1893-1941), the Birmingham-born founder of the Odeon Cinema chain, was President of the synagogue in 1932-1940, and he used his own cinema architect, Harry W Weedon. At the same time, the Victorian stained deal pews were replaced by plush upholstered seating, and the overall seating capacity was increased to 1,000.

A central bimah was reinstalled in the 1980s and the choir moved to the rear. The present bimah is thought to have come from the bombed Osborne Street Synagogue in Hull, dating from 1903.

Singers Hill Synagogue was repaired and redecorated in 2014-2015 and officially rededicated in March 2015 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Victorian Library and the Council Room are upstairs. The adjoining children’s synagogue was created in 1957-1959 by Cotton, Ballard & Blow. There is no mikveh. The synagogue has been a Grade II* Listed Building since 1970.

The interior of the synagogue was repaired and completely redecorated in 2014-2015. It was officially rededicated by the Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, in March 2015.

Singers Hill Synagogue has always had the reputation of being the ‘Englischer Shul’ of Birmingham Jewry. It has regained its position as the flagship of Birmingham’s tiny Jewish community. The Chief Minister of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation, Rabbi Yossi Jacobs, has seen a period of advancement since his appointment.

Membership has increased, there is a choir, and activities include men’s and women’s classes, a Cheder, a mother-and-baby group, an after-school club, youth and teenage programmes, singles events, pensioner outings, educational visits, keep-fit classes and weekly Shabbat Kiddushim.

Birmingham Hebrew Congregation runs the King David School and the Jewish cemeteries in Birmingham. There are links with other faith leaders and civic leaders, and the Lord Mayor is the guest of honour at the annual Civic Service, a Shabbat morning service.

Shabbat Shalom

Yeoville Thomason, who designed Singers Hill Synagogue, also designed Birmingham Council House and Art Gallery (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Central Synagogue in the heart of the West End has ‘a touch of cinematic glamour’

The Central Synagogue on Great Portland Street is in the heart of London’s West End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

In recent years, I have been visiting many of the historic synagogues in the East End of London. But it would be wrong to give the impression that the East End has the only historic synagogues in London.

The Central Synagogue, for example, is in the heart of the West End, on Great Portland Street and Hallam Street, mid-way between Oxford Circus and Regent’s Park.

The Central Synagogue has been at this location, in one form or another for almost 170 years. The present synagogue was rebuilt in 1958 after the original building was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1941. But there has been a synagogue on this site since 1855, and the present synagogue, designed by the architect by C Edmund Wilford, is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year.

The story of the Central Synagogue is an part of the history of Anglo-Jewry. It has played a full part in the life and activities of the Jewish Community in London, and the archives are full of outstanding figures who have contributed to the welfare and prosperity of both the Jewish community and the wider community.

Jews began migrating to the West End at the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign. But, until well into 19th century, Jews in the West End could only attend the long-established older synagogues in the City of London, such as the Great Synagogue in Duke’s Place. The Reform community broke this tradition in 1842 with a modest synagogue in Burton Street, Bloomsbury, that then moved to Margaret Street in 1849.

The Great Synagogue feared losing members in the West End to this new congregation, and agreed in 1850 to fund a new branch synagogue in the West End. The site selected lay behind 43-47 Great Portland Street.

The new ‘Branch Synagogue’ was consecrated in 1855. The Great Synagogue remained responsible for the administration and the supervision of religious services. Membership grew and the need for a permanent synagogue became apparent when the building proved too small and could not be extended.

A Great Synagogue subcommittee chaired by Sir Anthony de Rothschild (1810-1876) was appointed in 1866 to find a new site nearby and build afresh for 800 worshippers, with two ministers’ houses attached. They promptly secured the houses at 133-141 Great Portland Street.

The committee chose as the architect Nathan Solomon Joseph (1834-1909), son-in-law of Dr Nathan Marcus Adler, Chief Rabbi and founder of the United Synagogue. Joseph is regarded as ‘the most prominent of the first generation of Anglo-Jewish synagogue architects,’ and his other works include the Great Victoria Street Synagogue, Belfast (1870), the Garnethill Synagogue, Glasgow (1878), and the United Synagogue Cemetery, Willesden (1873-1874). He was a social reformer and from its foundation he was the architect to the Guinness Trust.

The foundation stone of the first synagogue on the present site was laid on 18 March 1869 by Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1879), and it was named the ‘Central Synagogue’. The construction of the ornate building was completed in a year, and the Central Synagogue was consecrated by Chief Rabbi Adler on 7 April 1870. It was established as an independent congregation on its present site in Great Portland Street.

Nathan Solomon Joseph drew up a Moorish design in 1867, arguing that Gothic and Classical styles were both unsuitable, whereas the Moresque was well adapted to an ‘ecclesiastical’ building yet had advantages of ‘elasticity’ and economy. He was asked to present an alternative Italianate version, but the original was preferred, with modifications. That synagogue was built to his design in 1869-1870.

The Central Synagogue was described as the first thoroughly Oriental-style synagogue, not just in Britain but beyond, although descriptions of it bring to mind the Jerusalem Synagogue and the Spanish Synagogue in Prague and the Great Synagogue om Dohany Street, Budapest. The Great Portland Street front was an eccentric confection in brick and two types of stone, culminating at the north end in a tower-like feature over an entrance porch with a horseshoe arch.

The interior, spacious, high and light, faced south like the present building, culminating in a richly decorated apsidal space for the Holy Ark or Aron haKodesh. Windows and arches were round-headed, with an orientalising horseshoe profile above the arches over the galleries, and round clerestory lights incorporating Star-of-David tracery.

Cast-iron columns, painted at first and marble-clad from 1876, carried the galleries and roof, which was divided by ribs. The rabbis’ houses at the back on 36-40 Hallam Street survive, and their two-tone brickwork and Moorish detail having a hint of the Mezquita or Great Mosque in Cordoba.

Embellishments took place over the years, the grandest being the replacement of the central almemar with an elaborate new one in marble, presented in 1928 by the 2nd Lord Bearsted in memory of his parents. Joseph’s original almemar (or bimah) was moved to the Margate synagogue.

The synagogue was destroyed in bombing on 10 May 1941. A year earlier, permission had been granted for it to be used as an assembly centre for temporary refuge for people whose homes had been destroyed. Fortunately, no one was in the building at the time.

A temporary synagogue with 550 seats was built in 1946, and the congregation returned to the site in 1948.

A menorah and inscription over the Great Portland Street entrance to the Central Synagogue in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

It was decided in May 1955 to rebuild a fine permanent replacement synagogue on the original site, and building work began on 4 February 1956. As the new building was being planned, there were pressures from the United Synagogue to abandon the proposals in favour of a new synagogue being planned at Marble Arch.

However, the Great Universal Stores magnate Sir Isaac Wolfson (1897-1991) and his son, the philanthropist Leonard Wolfson (1927-2010), Lord Wolfson, lived in Portland Place. They offered £25,000 towards rebuilding the Central Synagogue, which meant that, with war-damage compensation, the new building would cost the congregation very little.

The foundation stone of the new Central Synagogue was laid by Sir Isaac Wolfson and the new Central Synagogue was consecrated by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Israel Brodie, on 23 March 1958.

The present synagogue was designed by C Edmund Wilford & Sons in 1956-1958, who was appointed the architect at the suggestion of Leonard Wolfson. Wilford had made a name with cinemas before World War II. He had no known connection with the Jewish community, but may have worked for the Wolfsons’ company, Great Universal Stores.

Wilford and his assistants were directed to look at synagogues in London and perhaps also Venice. T Tersons Ltd built a conventional, dignified building in 1956-1958 that corresponded closely with its predecessor but it also had what has been described as ‘an internal touch of cinematic glamour.’

The Great Portland Street façade is mainly clad in Portland stone, but the plinth and the columns flanking the high and hooded windows are of red Swedish granite. At the north end, the entrance doors are set back in a high frame clad in gold mosaic. There is also an entrance on Hallam Street that now serves as the principal entrance.

The galleried interior gives a powerful impression of height and restrained opulence. The focus is on the ark at the south end, which stands in an outer surround of red mosaic embellished by flanking lions on tall pillars of gold and an inner frame of Sienna marble. The bronze doors on the Aron haKodesh or Holy Ark and other bronze work was made by the Brent Metal Company, and is strong, spiky and characteristically 1950s. The other main feature is the almemar or bimah, clad in red marble, with attached panels carved in low relief.

Over a 15-year period, the synagogue windows were filled with colourful glass made by Lowndes & Drury to designs by David Hillman. There is a hall below the worship area, and the circulation spaces including the stairs to the galleries are generous.

A centenary service on 22 November 1970 was conducted by the Emeritus Chief Rabbi, Sir Israel Brodie, Rabbi Cyril Shine and the Revd Simon Hass. A special service was held in 2008 to mark the Golden Jubilee of the reconsecration of the Central Synagogue.

The Central Synagogue holds regular weekday and Shabbat services, as well as a range of social events throughout the year. Non-members must pre-book for services.

The Central Synagogue is keen to build up a strong young community again, and recently introduced a new children’s service format so that children of all ages are catered for. There are special services next week, from 25 to 27 May to celebrate Shavuot.

Shabbat Shalom

The Central Synagogue on Great Portland Streetis said to have ‘an internal touch of cinematic glamour’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)