Greenbank Drive Synagogue

This synagogue was built in 1936 to designs by Alfred Ernest Shennan. The structure employs reinforced concrete and steel with buff brick facings and a tiled roof. The building exemplifies the Art Deco style with Swedish architectural influences.

Plan and Layout

The synagogue follows a rectangular basilica plan. A circa 1950s annexe attached to the right (south) side is not of special interest. The building sits on sloping ground, resulting in a ground floor basement level and a raised ground floor to the rear. The basement contains a large function space, the ground floor accommodates the prayer hall and ancillary spaces, and the first floor houses the ladies' gallery and rear storage areas.

Exterior

All windows throughout are metal-framed with leaded lights. The main west-facing front elevation addresses Greenbank Drive with a projecting three-bay square central section featuring splayed corners. A triple-arched arcade with circular brick piers and carved capitals forms the entrance porch, with three main doorways set to the rear incorporating doors with elliptical panels. Tall paired windows with decorative metalwork flank the central door. Semi-circular lunette windows at each end of the entrance porch display metalwork designs in the form of a Menorah. The entrances are approached by two flights of shallow stairs with curved flanking brick walls to the upper flight. Art Deco style metal balustrades divide the flights into three sections.

Above the entrances at first floor level are three tall tripartite windows with arched centre lights and carved rubbed brick surrounds. Raised brick decoration appears below these windows. A decorative brick parapet with a raised centre and angled sides contains a stone relief inscribed with the Tablets of the Law.

Lower two-storey wings to each side form the prayer hall's gallery side aisles. The front of these wings features paired tall slender stair windows with projecting angled glazing, whilst small paired square windows appear on the returns at basement, ground, half-landing, and first floor levels. Low two-storey projections set back behind each far side contain small paired horizontal windows at basement and ground floor level (the library occupies the left end, the Beth Hamidrash the right). Three tall round-headed windows with slender hoodmoulds appear on each ground floor bowed return, with horizontal windows below featuring projecting angled glazing.

The side elevations each display eight buttresses: those at the ends are gabled buttresses, whilst those in the centre are stepped. Tall round-headed windows occupy the bays between buttresses. Smaller paired vertical square-headed windows and access doorways appear at basement level.

The rear elevation features a central section with three vertical windows flanked by slender paired windows (all with central transoms) at basement level, with taller windows aligned above at ground floor (those in the centre having round heads). Angled towers to each side rise above a parapet, with a gable set back behind containing a large stepped seven-light lancet east window. Two bowed two-storey projections extend from the corners of this elevation, rising to mid-ground floor level with vertical seven-light windows to the upper level and smaller windows to the basement. Side aisles behind follow the same style as the front elevation. The circa 1950s single-storey annexe on the south side, linked to the basement level by an enclosed walkway, is not of special interest.

Interior

The interior displays Art Deco styling with carved light oak woodwork. Original doors and wooden parquet floors survive throughout.

The entrance vestibule features shallow moulded ceiling decoration with a central lozenge design and semi-circular wall-mounted uplights. Sweeping cantilevered concrete stairs with Art Deco pierced metal balustrades at each end lead up to the ladies' galleries and down to the basement. Three plain double doors with large arched hoods lead into the prayer hall. Doors to left and right of the prayer hall entrance within arched recesses lead to the library and small Beth Hamidrash (Schul) respectively.

The Beth Hamidrash (renovated in 1981) has fixed bench seating to the sides and curved walls with name plaques flanking the doorway. A wooden wall-mounted Torah scroll cabinet/Ark on the east wall features pierced lattice woodwork to the curved sides and doors incorporating the Magen David symbol, with a gilt Hebrew inscription above and a double arched panel to the top inscribed with the Ten Commandments in Hebrew and the Magen David.

The prayer hall has whitewashed walls and a pale blue ceiling. The barrel-vaulted reinforced concrete ceiling features a canopied clerestory supported on concrete girders. A cantilevered ladies' gallery extends to three sides with a segmental curve at the west end. The stepped seven-light lancet window at the east end contains simple stained glass and leaded decoration including a stained glass Magen David in the centre light. A partition wall at the west end behind the ladies' gallery conceals an office. A glass-fronted metal balustrade (glass replaced circa 1959-1960 following a fire) with a geometric pattern incorporating the Magen David marks the choir loft above and behind the Ark. A similar style balustrade appears on the corner walls at first floor height. Seating is provided in the ground floor side aisles and ladies' gallery.

Doors to left and right of the Ark lead to rear stairs (in similar style to the main front stairs—concrete with simplified Art Deco balustrade) and ancillary storage and robing rooms on both floors. The stair to the rear right also provides access to the choir.

The basement Max Morris Hall comprises a large open function space with a pierced wooden suspended ceiling and a small stage at the west end featuring large internal horizontal windows with leaded light glazing to the porch behind. A large kitchen occupies the rear (east end). An enclosed porch on the south wall leads to the later annexe (not of interest). Stairs to each side behind the stage lead up to the basement foyer, with metal balustrades in the same style as the external entrance balustrades. The basement foyer has a later linoleum floor, with cloakrooms to each side beneath the library and Beth Hamidrash and the main side stairs.

Fixtures and Fittings

The Art Deco panelled Ark was rebuilt to the original design circa 1959-1960 after the original was destroyed by fire. Constructed of light oak with inlaid ebony, it features gilt metalwork decoration to the central double doors incorporating the Magen David. The Ark stands upon the original Travertine marble platform with a simple metal balustrade. A marble pulpit occupies the centre front of the platform, flanked by two narrow flights of five steps. A Hebrew inscription in gilt relief lettering above the Ark doors roughly translates as "The Lord will keep the light lit everlasting", with the Ner Tamid above. A book-shaped oak tablet at the top of the Ark is inscribed with the Ten Commandments in Hebrew.

The centrally placed original Bimah (Almemar) is of light oak with metal railings and tall five-branch candelabra at each corner. Oak pews with individual armrests furnish the ground floor side aisles and first floor ladies' gallery, with pews at the west end of the ladies' gallery following the curve of the balcony. Art Deco style metal chandeliers at the centre of the ceiling and smaller light fittings beneath the galleries incorporate the Magen David symbol.

History

The Liverpool Hebrew Congregation was founded in the 18th century at the Stanley Street/Cumberland Street Synagogue. Over subsequent years it occupied various premises before a purpose-built synagogue was constructed at Seel Street in 1807. A schism in 1838 divided the congregation into the Old Hebrew Congregation (which remained at Seel Street until new premises were built at Princes Road in 1872-1874) and the New Hebrew Congregation. The latter congregation established a synagogue in a warehouse on Hanover Street and subsequently in a building on Pilgrim Street. A purpose-built synagogue was constructed at Hope Place in 1857.

After the First World War and by the mid-1920s, the Jewish population began migrating from the city centre to wealthier suburbs (particularly Sefton Park), leaving fewer congregation members within walking distance of Hope Place. The New Hebrew (Hope Place) Congregation established school classes in the Sefton Park area, and in 1928 acquired number 321 Smithdown Road as a place of Hebrew education. A small congregation also began holding religious services there, becoming known as the Sefton Park Hebrew Congregation.

In 1928 the Hope Place Congregation began searching for a new site for a larger synagogue. In 1935 the Greenbank Drive site near the entrance to Sefton Park was chosen, and the lease obtained from the City Corporation. Upon completion of Greenbank Drive Synagogue in 1937, the main migration of the Hope Place congregation took place. The congregation rejoined with the Sefton Park Hebrew Congregation and the two reverted to their original name of the New Hebrew Congregation.

The foundation stone for Greenbank Drive Synagogue was laid on 14 June 1936 by Baron Tobias Globe, attended by the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Dr J H Hertz. The building was consecrated on 15 August 1937 and opened by Professor Henry Cohen (a member of the congregation and later Lord Cohen of Birkenhead). The basement area was originally used as a youth centre, and the synagogue had its own scout troop (the 22nd Wavertree).

During the Blitz in 1941, Greenbank Drive Synagogue served as a reception centre for families bombed out in Liverpool and held a non-Jewish service at Christmas. It also functioned as a social centre during the war for American Jewish GIs stationed at an air base in Burtonwood, Warrington. After the war they presented a plaque to the congregation (displayed in the entrance hall).

In May 1959 a burglar started a fire that destroyed the Ark and Torah scrolls and part of the roof structure. The building was subsequently restored by the original firm of architects at a cost of £50,000 and re-consecrated in 1961. Due to increasing competition, the youth centre closed at this time. A further fire occurred in two first floor offices behind the ladies' gallery in 1965, but damage was confined to those areas. The building ceased active use on 5 January 2008.