Bevis Marks Synagogue

Bevis Marks Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom.

Bevis Marks Synagogue
Credit: John Salmon

The synagogue was built in 1701 and is affiliated to London’s historic Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. It is the only synagogue in Europe which has held regular services continuously for more than 300 years.

Services at a small synagogue in Creechurch Lane date to at least October 1663, when it was visited on the festival of Simchat Torah, by the diarist Samuel Pepys, who recorded his impressions of the service. In 1698 Rabbi David Nieto took spiritual charge of the congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews (also called Sephardim).

A considerable influx of Jews made it necessary to obtain more commodious quarters. Accordingly, a committee was appointed and on 12 February 1699, signed a contract with Joseph Avis, a Quaker, for the construction of a building to cost £2,650. On 24 June 1699, the committee leased from Sir Thomas and Lady Pointz a tract of land at Plough Yard, in Bevis Marks, for 61 years, with the option of renewal for a further 38 years, at £120 a year.

The structure was completed and dedicated in September 1701. The interior decor and furnishing and layout of the synagogue reflect the influence of the great Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam of 1675. The roof was destroyed by fire in 1738 and repaired in 1749. The essential original structure of the building thus remains today.

As the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community grew and moved out of the City and East End of London to the West End and the suburbs, members demanded a new synagogue to be built in the West End. When leadership refused this, some members formed a breakaway synagogue in Burton Street, which later became the West London Synagogue. In 1853 a branch synagogue was opened in Wigmore Street; in 1866 this moved to Bryanston Street, Bayswater.

In 1896 a new synagogue was built at Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale, as successor to the Bryanston Street synagogue.

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