The Synagogue And Attached Gate

The Synagogue and Attached Gate, Brighton

This synagogue on Middle Street in Brighton was built in 1874–1875 to designs by Thomas Lainson and constructed by Messrs Cheeseman for the Brighton Hebrew Congregation. The building is constructed of yellow brick to the street front and brown brick to the sides and rear, laid in English bond with stone and tile dressings. The roof is obscured by a parapet. The internal construction of the synagogue body is of iron.

The street front features windows on three levels arranged in an eight-window range. It is set out as three two-window bays with single-window recesses between them, with a gabled upper section set back above the bays. An ashlar plinth runs across the base. A segmental-arched entrance in the central projecting bay is flanked by columns of pink polished granite with foliage capitals; the archivolt is inscribed with Hebrew texts. The ground- and first-floor windows are round-arched and flanked by engaged sandstone columns with foliage capitals. Their heads are formed of glazed voussoir bricks in blue, red and black. A stepped brick cornice sits above the first floor. The upper part of the gabled front contains a wheel window with the Tablets of the Law above it, flanked by pairs of short stone pilasters, and is topped by a corniced gable. The north and south sides have six pairs of round-arched windows at each level, each pair set in a stone surround under a round arch with chamfered reveals of yellow brick. Clerestory windows are round-arched, arranged in six groups of four. A canted apse projects from the east end. An elaborate iron gate fronts the passage on the south side.

The interior of the synagogue is galleried on the north, west and south sides, arranged in five bays. Columns throughout are of iron, covered with scagliola. Men's seats occupy the ground floor, with women's seats in the galleries. The Ark is positioned in the central facet of the apse behind elaborate wrought-iron gates of 1905. The lower walls of the apse are decorated with mosaic; the upper walls feature densely patterned plasterwork in low relief. The three facets of the apse are divided by slim engaged columns supporting vault ribs filled with stained glass of 1888. The apse is framed by an arch comprising columns one above the other with neo-Byzantine capitals supporting a round-arched inner order; the outer order is inscribed with texts and arabesques. A pair of round-arched windows sits above the apse. The Ark steps are semicircular in plan, with marble steps, terrazzo paving and elaborate brass rails of 1905.

The galleries are carried on columns one above the other, with capitals carved with fruits mentioned in the Bible. Openwork balustrades of iron and brass divide the levels at ground floor and gallery level. At gallery level, columns form part of a round-arched arcade. A central flat-arched doorway occupies the west end, with brass gates that originally enclosed the Ark. At gallery level, the west doorway is flat-arched with pilasters and an archivolt; its tympanum is decorated with carving and mosaic. A pitched roof carried on round arches springs to each bay, with the arches supported on foliage corbels.

The floor of the central space is black and white marble. A perpetual lamp of silver hangs above the Ark steps. A brass pulpit decorated with openwork arabesques stands in the synagogue. Below the Ark steps is a Hanucah Menorah of brass on a column base. The Bima has a wooden base surmounted by elaborate cast-iron railings with brass rails and finials to standards, plus four cast-iron lamp standards; the brasswork dates from 1892. The entrance to the Bima is at the west end rather than at the sides, an early example of this arrangement. The reading desk itself is of wood with columns at the re-entrant corners, panels of scagliola and a carved frieze. Warden's seats of wood, decorated in the form of consoles with a brass balustrade in front, stand before the Bima. The original men's and women's seating is of stained pine. Painted decoration echoing the arcading of galleries and windows, and panelling of ceilings, dates from 1945 or earlier and was refurbished on the ground floor in 1991. Three pairs of metal electroliers occupy the central space and ten more are positioned on the ground floor and in galleries; all date from 1892, making this the first synagogue in Britain to be lit by electric light.

Windows in the north, south and east walls are flanked by engaged columns with foliage capitals. All windows throughout the synagogue contain non-figurative stained glass of consistent design. The west window and two other lights at the west end probably date from 1887; those on the north and south sides of the ground floor date from circa 1895 except the westernmost, which are of 1912, as are the two westernmost in the women's gallery. Two windows at the east end of the north gallery date from 1896. A good deal of the glass was repaired in the 1960s.

A vestibule at the west end features an encaustic-tile floor and a staircase with a fluted newel, slim cast-iron balusters, a wreathed and ramped rail and open string.

The unusually sumptuous interior reflects not so much the size of the Jewish community in Brighton as the popularity of Brighton as a holiday resort among Jewish people, and the pious gifts of the Sassoon family, who presented some of the elaborate fittings and stained glass. The architect Thomas Lainson was surveyor to the Wick Estate in Hove.