New Synagogue And Attached School

The New Synagogue and attached school were built between 1914 and 1915 by E M Joseph and partner Smithem. The synagogue's interior design was inspired by John Davies's New Synagogue in Bishopsgate (1838), incorporating original fittings from that earlier building. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and quoins, and has a gabled roof.

The exterior is in an Edwardian Baroque style. The front elevation is pedimented over two storeys, with six window bays. The ground floor projects, featuring banded brickwork above a stone podium, and a tetrastyle Doric portico flanked by moulded stone panels containing two-light mezzanine windows above. Two round-arched entrances, each within an architraves with lugs and keystones, have fanlights and panelled doors; these flank a central window similarly treated. The first floor has a similar central window flanked by paired stone pilasters supporting an entablature and a small broken pediment. Rectangular stone towers rise through the first floor, each featuring round-arched windows within pedimented aedicules, and topped with domed roofs. The returns have architraved windows to the ground floor, with keystones. First-floor windows are architraved, with keystones and lugs projecting into the apron of round-arched windows.

The interior vestibule features Ionic columns and an entablature leading to a vaulted ceiling. The main galleried space is in an Italianate style with a barrel-vaulted ceiling featuring inset lunettes, and a panelled ceiling above the galleries. The galleries are supported by Doric columns and an entablature, rising to Corinthian columns and an entablature to the ceiling. Paired Doric pilasters and Corinthian columns flank the apsidal end, which houses the Ark, with a Corinthian column screen to the gallery; a coffered dome ceiling with a central oculus completes the space. The Ark, originally from the 1838 synagogue, was relocated in its entirety, including the 1838 mahogany doors with curved patterns. The central "bimah" was remodelled from the earlier building, rebuilt at a smaller scale without a choir space. Benches with armrests were also relocated, while eight candelabra, likely late 19th century rather than from 1838, were moved from the earlier synagogue. Stained glass is from circa 1915 and later, and the pulpit dates from 1919. A tetrastyle in antis stone loggia connects the synagogue to the contemporary school, which is built of channelled red brickwork with stone dressings, two storeys high and three windows wide, with recessed sash windows with gauged red brick flat arches and keystones. A stone cornice and blocking course run along the building, concealing a brick gabled end.

The congregation in the area had been declining before the First World War, leading to the sale of the Great St Helen's synagogue. The construction of the new building enabled the United Synagogue to make a profit, which was used to fund the construction of several other synagogues throughout London.