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Brighton, former
Devonshire Place Synagogue
June
2007:
Conversion
into nine apartments by Sophie Curtis Property;
the inscription on the façade has been
sensitively restored and a Blue Plaque affixed
to the building commemorates its architect David
Mocatta.
January
2005:
A scheme which would have destroyed the last
remaining original features of the Grade II
Listed former Regency synagogue at Devonshire
Place was considerably scaled down. In July
2004, English Heritage, the local branch of the
Jewish Historical Society of England, local
residents and Jewish Heritage UK objected to
plans to extend and convert the building into
flats, involving loss of the Regency ceiling
lantern, roofline and much of the external
fabric. At their meeting in January 2005,
Brighton & Hove City Council’s Planning
Committee accepted Jewish Heritage UK’s
written representation that the reinstatement of
the inscription on the façade of the building:
“JEWS SYNAGOGUE 5598 [= 1838]” should be
made a condition of finally granting planning
consent. This inscription has been painted over
at some time in the past, presumably without
Listed Building Consent, but is still visible on
close inspection. The former
Devonshire Place Synagogue, remodelled in
1836-38 by the first Anglo-Jewish architect
David Mocatta (who also designed Brighton
Railway Station), is included in the Brighton Jewish Heritage Trail
in Jewish Heritage in England (published
by English Heritage in 2006).
Manchester, Talmud Torah Jewish School
June 2005:
Almost
total demolition and redevelopment as warehouse
and office space has been prevented thanks to
the intervention of Jewish Heritage UK. The
former school at
No. 11 Bent Street, Cheetham, was built in 1894-95,
architect William Sharp Ogden of Cheetham-based
Ogden & Charlton. Plans have now been
modified to ensure the retention of the original
main range, including foundation stones and
inscriptions, of a building of considerable
local interest, and which constitutes one of the
sites on the Manchester Jewish Museum’s Jewish
Heritage Trail. The school gave its name to a
new street: Torah Street - the only one in the
country.
Manchester,
South Manchester Synagogue
December
2004: South
Manchester Synagogue in Wilbraham Road,
Fallowfield (Joseph Sunlight 1912-13, Grade II),
is of considerable interest as the first
synagogue in the country built with a
cantilevered gallery, i.e. without column
supports beneath, made possible through advances
in steel and concrete building technology.
The synagogue recently faced redundancy on the
removal of its congregation to Bowden in
Cheshire, but has been purchased by a
consortium, with the intention of turning it
into a residential Jewish student centre,
feasible due to its proximity to the University
of Manchester campus.
Ramsgate,
Sir Moses Montefiore Estate
April
2004: Proposals
for redevelopment in the vicinity of the
historic Montefiore Synagogue and Mausoleum may
be called in for Public Enquiry. The local
Montefiore Action Project (MAP), with the
support of the Committee for the Preservation of
Jewish Cemeteries in Europe, have been
campaigning to protect the integrity of the
whole site against inappropriate redevelopment.
Current proposals include a housing estate and
private medical centre.
York, Clifford’s Tower
September
2003:
After a lengthy Public Inquiry, a proposed £60
million development scheme, known as
“Coppergate” was rejected by the Deputy
Prime Minister John Prescott. The scheme would
have involved the building of a shopping complex
25 metres from the base of Clifford’s Tower.
Clifford’s Tower was the site of the massacre
of York Jewry in 1190. The proposed development
by Land Securities, which was nicknamed
“Shoppergate”, was fiercely opposed as
inappropriate by locals spearheaded by the
Castle Area Campaign. Their campaign has had the
support of CABE [Council for Architecture &
the Built Environment], the Board of Deputies of
British Jews and the Survey of the Jewish Built
Heritage in the UK & Ireland.
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