Historic East End synagogue up for sale at £2 million - The Jewish Chronicle

One of the last remaining synagogues in the East End of London, Nelson Street, is to be sold at an auction on Thursday next week.

Opened in 1923 and also known as East London Central Synagogue, the building has not been used for six years after its leaking roof collapsed.

East London Central president Leon Silver surveying the damage to the synagogue in 2020 Photo: Mike Brooke/East London Advertiser)[Missing Credit]

Auctioneers Acuitus are selling it on behalf of the Federation of Synagogues with a guide price of £2 million.

The red brick building, which houses a “fine classic interior” according to Acuitus, is locally listed, which means any development would have to take into account its historic significance.

https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/alias/contentid/1oxxllm2tvpnn6zosmb/nelson%20street.jpg?f=3x2&w=732&q=0.6

[Missing Credit]

But six years ago planning permission was obtained for five-storey housing at the side of the building which has since lapsed.

Its last president, Leon Silver, 76, said “It is so upsetting.” Three generations of his family were associated with the building, where his parents were married in 1936.

While acknowledging that “we were struggling to get a minyan,” he believed the building was a “historic treasure. The outside is very plain but people say the inside is beautiful, which I think so too. I hope it can be saved and restored. It is so essential for inter-faith harmony and education.”

The only synagogue in Tower Hamlets, he recalled showing many children from the majority local Muslim population around it. It had also been the location for the annual local HMD commemoration, he said.

“I wanted to turn it into an East End Jewish heritage centre,” he added.

Local Tower Hamlets councillor Peter Golds, who attends services at one of the few synagogues left, the Congregation of Jacob, said of Nelson Street that it was “sad that it goes, but there’s virtually no congregation...

“The congregation has gone and life has to move on.”

Nelson Street had been due to host a Holocaust Memorial Day event in 2020 but that had to be relocated after the roof collapse.

"A fine classic interior": Nelson Street (photo: Acuitus)[Missing Credit]

Apart from Congregation of Jacob, only one other independent synagogue, Sandys Row, is left, while British Jewry’s oldest place of worship, Bevis Marks, stands on the borders of the East End and the City of London.

According to the radical Jewish magazine Vashti, some years ago Tower Hamlets Council had considered plans to restore Nelson Street, expanding it into a museum and library.

Dr Sharman Kadish, the community's leading campaigner for the preservation of historic Jewish sites in the UK, said she was "sad to see it go. This was the last purpose-built Ashkenazi synagogue in the East End."

She added: "I hope the Federation will use some of the proceeds for looking after their historic cemeteries."

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Topics:

East End

Federation of Synagogues