Athol Masonic Building

Masonic Hall, formerly synagogue. The building comprises three main phases of construction. The oldest part is the lodge room, built as a synagogue in 1827 by Richard Tutin. Following the establishment of the Singer Street Synagogue, this building was sold to the Freemasons and became known as Athol Lodge, the second lodge in Birmingham. Dining rooms and ante rooms were added by Henry Naden in 1871-74, built by Moffat. The street front facing Severn Street was remodelled by Essex and Nicol in 1891. After the Jewish 'Lodge of Israel' was founded in 1874, both lodges shared the building.

The building is constructed of red brick with stuccoed dressings. The Severn Street facade, dating from 1891, is three storeys to the street front with a single storey behind. It comprises four bays divided by banded pilasters. At the left is a doorway, and to the right are three small square windows of 3 by 3 panes, each set in a recessed panel with a plain apron. Above is an entablature. The first floor bays are divided by small paired pilasters, and the two central windows have splayed heads. The flat-roofed attic dormer has been extended to accommodate eight windows.

The interior of the 1891 front rooms contains a staircase, meeting and robing rooms, and the present bar. Beyond these lies the original synagogue designed by Richard Tutin in 1827, now used as the lodge room. The room is articulated by plain pilasters dividing the walls and features a deeply coved ceiling. At the centre of the south-east end is the recess for the ark, which now has a flat wall to the rear. A Board of Health plan by Pigett-Smith from 1859-60 showed the ark recess as having an apsidal rear wall before the dining rooms were added. Flanking the ark are fluted, baseless Greek Doric columns with pilaster responds to the sides, arranged distyle in antis. Above is a Doric entablature, with antifixae above the cornice.

The dining room, added by Henry Naden in 1871-74, contains ceiling brackets, fire surrounds, and overmantel mirror surrounds all decorated with five and six-sided stars and other Masonic and Hebrew insignia.

The building is architecturally significant as an early example of a synagogue in Birmingham at a time when the city became a stronghold for Judaism in England. The synagogue chamber retains its architectural form with little alteration, including the surround to the ark, representing an elegant essay in the Greek Revival style with clear and precise use of proportions. The accompanying dining room is a good and complete survival of a club-style interior of the later 19th century, and its use by an almost exclusively Jewish lodge means that the two interiors carry particular resonance.