Former synagogue [now Mater Hospital Physiotherapy Gym], 4 Annesley Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT14 6AU

Former Synagogue, 4 Annesley Street, Belfast (now Mater Hospital Physiotherapy Gym)

Built in 1904 and designed by Young & Mackenzie, this is the oldest surviving synagogue in Northern Ireland. At the time of its construction it was only the second synagogue to be built in Belfast. It is a relatively plain, single-storey gabled building in brick and stucco, situated on the south side of Annesley Street, west of Antrim Road and just north of Carlisle Circus. The congregation vacated the building in 1966, and in 1968 it was sold to the nearby Mater Infirmorum Hospital, since when it has been used as a physiotherapy gym.

Exterior

To the west gable of the main hall there is a two-storey gabled entrance section. At ground floor level on the north gable of this section is the main entrance: a large timber-sheeted double door set within a semicircular-headed recess. The door surround features unusual three-quarter columns on high plinths, with raised bands to the column shafts and floral capitals. Above capital level there is a moulded archivolt with matching raised bands. Within the semicircular head of the doorway is a blank fanlight bearing a raised Star of David symbol. The façade is finished in painted lined render up to the springing level of the arch, with unpainted roughcast above. At first-floor level, directly above the doorway, are three semicircular-headed windows, the central one taller than the two flanking it. These have lattice-paned frames and simple surrounds, apparently in painted stone, resting on a sill course. To the west elevation of this entrance section there is a large modern single- and two-storey brick lean-to extension, part of which serves as a boiler house. The short south elevation of the entrance section is largely obscured by neighbouring buildings, but its first-floor level is in brick and has two flat-arch windows. The roof of the entrance section is part-gabled and part-hipped, and appears to be wholly slated except for a substantial rooflight on the west side. The exposed upper portion of the west gable of the main hall is rendered, with a small square louvred opening near the apex.

The long north elevation of the main hall — the principal street-facing façade — has six tall semicircular-headed windows with painted stone surrounds and lattice-paned frames incorporating coloured glass and hopper openers. Each window sits within a tall raised panel, and the panels are separated by plain brick pilasters. The façade above and below the panels is also in brick, with blue brick to the base. The east gable is largely finished in unpainted roughcast with brick-edged pilasters. It contains four tall windows matching those on the north elevation, arranged in two pairs. Between these pairs, set at a high level, is a small roundel window with coloured glass and a Star of David symbol. Near the apex there is a small square opening similar to that on the west gable. The south elevation of the main hall is largely obscured by neighbouring buildings but appears broadly similar in arrangement to the north elevation, with the panels in brick rather than roughcast. To the right of centre on this elevation is a small single-storey brick projection, now roofless, which is said to have contained a ceremonial bath. To the left of this projection is a partly glazed doorway, and directly above it a further doorway — apparently a fire escape — set within a small timber projection. To the left of the main projection is another single-storey projection whose west face is rendered and has a boarded-up window opening; this appears to have a flat roof. The gabled roof of the main hall is slated with rendered parapets.

Historical Background

Though there are scattered references to Jews in Belfast from the 17th and 18th centuries — including a Jewish tailor named Manuel Lightfoot recorded in the town in 1652, a Jewish butcher noted in 1771, and some anonymous Jewish residents in 1805 — there was no Jewish population of any significance in Belfast, or indeed across Ulster as a whole, before the mid-19th century. From that point, Belfast's rapid growth as a major industrial centre, combined with changing circumstances for many Jews in central Europe, brought a number of mainly German and Austrian families to the city, among them the Jaffés, Mautners, Weinbergs and Lippmans.

Of these, the Jaffé family proved most significant to the history of Belfast's Hebrew congregation. Daniel Jaffé, a merchant from Hamburg, first came to Belfast around 1845 and by the mid-1850s had established the linen house of Jaffé Brothers. His son Martin held the first Hebrew service in Ulster at his Holywood home in late 1864, and largely through Daniel's financial support a purpose-built synagogue — together with a minister's dwelling house and school — was erected in Great Victoria Street in 1871. An influx of families fleeing persecution in Russia and other eastern European countries during the final two decades of the 19th century caused the Belfast congregation to grow from 55 members in 1871 to over 1,000 by around 1900. Many of these newcomers settled in the Antrim Road area in the north of the city, leading to the establishment of a prayer house in Jackson Street and a school in Regent Street, and ultimately, in February 1904, to the construction of a new synagogue in Annesley Street, off Carlisle Circus.

Like the Great Victoria Street synagogue before it, this new building owed its existence largely to the Jaffé family — in this case to Sir Otto Jaffé, another son of Daniel, who served two terms as Belfast's Lord Mayor (1899–1900 and 1904–5), as High Sheriff of the City in 1901, and was a generous benefactor to many charities and institutions, most notably Queen's College, later Queen's University. The new synagogue cost around £4,000, the greater part of which was paid by Sir Otto, and the building was officially opened by him in full mayoral regalia in August 1904.

Following the opening of the Annesley Street synagogue, the Great Victoria Street building — a two-and-a-half-storey Ruskinian Gothic polychrome brick structure designed by Richard Stirrat — was vacated. It subsequently served as an Orange Hall and then as an Apostolic Church before being finally demolished in 1993.

Among those who worshipped at the Annesley Street synagogue were Dr Herzog, who went on to become the first Chief Rabbi of the Irish Free State, and his son Chaim Herzog, who later became President of Israel. The congregation continued to use the building until 1966. The Belfast Hebrew Congregation, now somewhat diminished from its early 20th-century peak of around 1,400 members, continues to meet at a synagogue within the Wolfson Centre on Somerton Road.