Bradford Synagogue (Reform)

BRADFORD SYNAGOGUE (REFORM)

A synagogue built in 1880–1 on Bowland Street in Manningham, Bradford, designed by architects Francis and Thomas Healey in the Islamic Revival style. This is a Grade II* listed building.

The building is constructed of yellow ashlar stone with bands of red ashlar from Siena, employing the banded technique known as ablaq in Arabic. The slate roof is hidden behind roof cresting. A 1956 school room extension to the rear is built of red brick.

The plan consists of a rectangular prayer hall with an Ark apse at the east end and a choir loft at the west end, a small entrance vestibule to the west, and an extended school room to the rear with a first-floor rabbi's room.

The Bowland Street elevation displays the characteristic banded ashlar with a chamfered plinth, bracketed eaves, and roof cresting incorporating a Star of David. The inscription above reads Genesis 28:17 in Hebrew. There are six bays, with doorways in the first and sixth bays. The main west doorway stands beneath a lobed horseshoe arch supported on twin red sandstone columns with Byzantine capitals decorated with arabesque carving. The arch itself bears the Hebrew inscription from Isaiah 26:2, with a Star of David and arabesque spandrels above. This is topped by a pierced stone arcade with two small ogee-arched windows. The double wooden doors feature geometric panels incorporating eight-pointed stars, with coloured and leaded glass overlights. The secondary east doorway is set under an ogee arch with moulded framing, encompassing a semi-circular and ogee-arched overlight of coloured and leaded glass, with a carved arabesque panel on either side. Above this doorway is a decorative light in the shape of an eight-pointed star, set in a sunken panel with geometric strapwork and a multi-lobed rosette. Between the two doorways are four large windows, each consisting of two-light lancets with multi-lobed rosettes above and ogee-shaped hood moulds. All lights feature geometric coloured and leaded glass based on the eight-pointed star motif.

The interior prayer hall has a barrel-vaulted and concave-arched roof with three slender shaped timber tie-beams, the outer ones supplemented by two iron tie rods. The barrel vault features coffering with plasterwork displaying an interlocking eight-pointed star design. A cusped and lobed arch frames the Ark apse at the east end, with a rectangular frame and arabesque spandrels. The combined bimah (platform), pulpit, and wooden Ark—painted white and gilded and set on a marble base—is tall and square in shape. It features timber grille-work in the arch and door fronts in the style known as mashrabiya, characteristic of Egyptian mosques, and includes a miniature hexagonal domed kiosk. Doorways to either side have lobed arches with square frames incorporating an abstract lily design. Pitch-pine pews line either side of the central aisle, decorated with ogee arch detailing and fitted with large storage compartments for prayer books and shawls. The choir loft at the west end is framed by a cusped and lobed arch, with a wooden grille to the balcony featuring fretwork in eight-pointed stars. The west porch contains inner double panelled and glazed doors, each with two lights of geometric coloured and leaded glass, and six round-arched overlights also in the same style. Similar double doors at the rear of the vestibule lead to the choir loft stairs. Double wooden and half-glazed doors from the vestibule into the prayer hall have narrow side lights with geometric coloured and leaded glass. An open well staircase with a swept wooden handrail and decorative iron balusters leads to the choir loft, with a similar staircase at the east end serving the rabbi's room. The original school room and rabbi's room are finished with moulded cornices.

A low boundary wall fronts Bowland Street, constructed of coursed stonework with canted coping. Original iron railings have been removed.

Historical Context

Bradford was unique in Britain in constructing a Reform synagogue before acquiring an Orthodox one. It was built for a progressive German Jewish congregation drawn to the city by the developing textile industry. Following the congregation's affiliation with the West London Synagogue of British Jews in 1878, a former timber yard on the south side of Bowland Street was purchased for £700. Building work began on 5 January 1880, and the synagogue was consecrated on 29 March 1881 at a cost of somewhat under £2,000. The architects Francis and Thomas Healey were primarily known for their designs, alterations, and additions to numerous churches throughout Yorkshire. The Bradford Synagogue was only the third purpose-built Reform synagogue in Britain. The first was Park Place in Manchester, designed by Edward Salomons in 1857–8 (destroyed in the Blitz in June 1941), and the second was the West London Synagogue on Upper Berkeley Street (1870). No further non-Orthodox synagogues were constructed before the First World War; three were built during the interwar period, and progressive synagogues became more common after 1945.