19, Princelet Street E1

Terraced house built in 1719 by builder Samuel Worrall, later adapted and extended as a synagogue in 1870 by Mr Hudson for the Loyal United Friends Friendly Society. The building is constructed of stock brick with red brick dressings and chenage, with tuck pointing. The ground floor was stuccoed after 1870. The roof is slate with a stack on the party wall.

The street frontage is three windows wide and rises three storeys over a basement, with a weavers' attic containing a seven-bay window with leaded lights. The plan is two rooms deep with a rear stair to the side, beyond which extends a prayer hall of two storeys with a basement meeting room to the rear. The sash windows have exposed boxes. The 1870s windows to the ground floor sit in round arches with scored voussoirs and keystones. The doors are double panelled with a leaded fanlight from 1870, set in a matching surround.

The entrance hall was broadened and reflagged in 1870, though original panelling and cornice were reused in a set-back position. A cast-iron balustrade serves the first floor, with an original open-string stair featuring turned balusters surviving above. The original two basement rooms, which served as kitchens for milk and meat, retain 1870s fireplaces and fittings. Both ground-floor rooms and the first-floor rear room open onto the prayer hall by means of folding doors to accommodate overflow seating, and they retain 18th-century panelling and cornices, with the first-floor example being the most complete. The prayer hall features a ladies' gallery supported on wrought-iron columns with Ionic capitals. The gallery fronts combine timber and cast iron, are chamfered, and bear memorial inscriptions of donors in English and Hebrew (now faded). The ark sits in an apse with curved wrought-iron gates. The bimah survives, though not in its original position at the time of inspection, along with many pews and three brass hanging candelabra. Wrought-iron ties across the roof connect to the sides of the heavy cornice and to brackets that supported beams now gone. A clerestorey features coloured glass and some opening panels.

The remaining portions of the house retain their early 18th-century character to a remarkable degree. The front room, three windows wide, is panelled with a dado rail and cornices, with shutters and a corner cupboard with round-arched top; the fireplace dates from 1870 and is set within narrower panelling. The staircase hall is fully panelled up to the second-floor landing, above which are plank and muntin screens, a feature rare in London but characteristic of Worrall's cost-cutting approach. The second-floor front room contains cupboards and an 1870s range. The third-floor attic weaving room also features a plank and muntin screen and plank door.

At the time of inspection, the house retained many prayer boards and other synagogue fittings stored within the building. The property is of particular importance as it exemplifies the distinctive history of Spitalfields, shaped by successive waves of immigrants. The upper portions retain associations with the Huguenot silk industry, while the rear extension represents the best surviving example of a small-scale Jewish prayer hall or 'shtiebl', a form once characteristic of the area.