The Northern School Of Contemporary Dance

LEEDS

SE33NW CHAPELTOWN ROAD 714-1/7/94 (East side) 22/11/91 The Northern School of Contemporary Dance

GV II

Synagogue, now premises of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. 1929-32. By J Stanley Wright of Albion Street, Leeds. Red/brown brick, stretcher bond, Portland stone entrance facade, concrete block foundation courses and side door surrounds, copper domes to roof, wrought-iron grilles. Rectangular plan, main entrance on west side and narrower entrances on north and south; a massive domed structure with lower dome and chimney at east end and small domes above the west entrance, the tall triple round-arched windows in massive buttresses rising above the eaves of the central dome. Front: 9 steps to portico with stone vases and paired columns with tulip capitals; rear: low flat-roofed offices, extension added; left return: paired panelled doors, upper panel glazed and covered by an iron grille, overlight with scrolled iron grille, flanking foundation stones; right return similar. Windows boarded but most retain original stained glass with Star of David motif. INTERIOR: the entrance area has black and white stone floor and stairs rising through a double-arched stone screen on left and right; the main auditorium retains much original seating, marble surround to recesses for the Ark of the Covenant, central Star of David with pendant light (?bronze), stone piers supporting gallery, octagonal heating grilles. Original seating also in the gallery. The architect had a military background, possibly serving in Palestine. His practice moved from Leeds to Boston Spa. The synagogue was built in the main area of Jewish settlement in Leeds until the 1960s; it closed in 1985 and some of the fittings were removed to the new synagogue in Shadwell Lane, Leeds 17 (not included). (Freedman, M of Jewish Historical Society: Letter of 8 April 1991).

Listing NGR: SE3082835317