Jewish Heritage UK - Survey of the Jewish Built Heritage

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Great Garden Street Synagogue in London's East End
(Copyright © English Heritage 1991)
A model Federation synagogue by Lewis Solomon. Opened in 1896, sold and gutted after Survey in 1996.

The database of the Survey of the Jewish Built Heritage contains both text and a digital image library that will eventually be deposited with the British National Monuments Record as a national resource for architectural historians, educators and conservationists of the future. The database currently contains information on some 350 synagogues, Jewish burial grounds and other Jewish communal buildings constructed or opened before the Second World War, as well as biographical details of about 120 architects who designed for the Jewish community. The Survey database has been custom-designed and implemented (using Microsoft Access) in accordance with the Council of Europe’s theoretical Core Data Standard [Core Data Index for recording historic buildings and monuments of the architectural heritage], published in 1995.

Arising from the Survey, several publications have already appeared including a full colour site-guide published by English Heritage to mark the tercentenary of Britain’s oldest synagogue Bevis Marks Synagogue in 2001. Jewish Heritage in England: An Architectural Guide has been published by English Heritage (November 2006) - see New Publications. A major monograph is also planned: The Synagogues of Britain and Ireland: An Architectural History. Publication is being sponsored by The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The book will be profusely illustrated with original drawings especially commissioned for the project and new full-colour photographs by English Heritage. It will be accompanied by a CD-ROM Gazetteer of Jewish Buildings and Sites in Britain and Ireland.