West London Synagogue organ being restored – by same company which built it 120 years ago

A view of the scaffolding up in the synagogue from February 2026[Missing Credit]

The whole project is due to cost more than £2 million, WLS life president Stephen Moss CBE told the JC.

“It’s a huge project,” he said, which “has been an absolute pleasure to be involved with”.

The WLS building – which was Grade II listed in 1989 – was last redecorated more than 40 years ago.

“This is one of those things that you do once in a generation, because we’ve reached that point in time where things need to be restored,” Moss said.

The organ itself was last restored only in 2008, but it wasn’t sent to Harrison & Harrison, and “should have lasted longer”, he said.

That isn’t necessarily why the organ is being restored now, though. Moss explained that for the scaffolding to be erected, the organ – with its 3,000 pipes, 55 stops, and four manuals – would need to be removed anyway, so that it avoids any potential damage.

He said: “We took the view that if we’re taking it out and putting it back, we should also restore it”, since its removal and return is a six-figure sum in itself.

Harrison & Harrison, who “are regarded as the world’s voice of organ specialists”, said Moss, aim to have the organ back in the synagogue, fully operational by the middle of 2027.

One box of the organ's pipes after disassembly[Missing Credit]

“We shut down in December 2025 and removed the organ and put up the full scaffolding,” said Moss. “We have now begun peeling away the paint layers on the ceiling. Then we will redecorate, and finish that in August so that the sanctuary [the main hall] can be used for the High Holy Days in September. After that, we will shut down again so that we can put the scaffolding back up to put the organ back in.”

The journey to completion is as exciting as the end product will be, Moss explained.

“We’re peeling back layers of the ceiling, so we have no paint upon paint, really making sure that it lasts”, he said. “And as we peel away the paint, we’re taking archive photos of whatever we reveal. It’s too damaged to use, but we’re keeping the community informed of whatever we find.”

An example of the paintwork which has been uncovered on the ceiling[Missing Credit]

They are finding different illustrations each week, from further and further back in the history of their community, which moved to this site in 1870, 30 years after the WLS congregation was founded.

The 3,000-strong community – which is currently using a smaller hall on the site for their worship – is being kept updated with photos of their new discoveries in the weekly newsletter, said Moss.

Through WLS’s regular fundraising cycle, the whole community is behind the two new stained-glass windows and the vestments for the scrolls.

“We have two arched areas at the back of the shul, which don’t have any natural light, so we’re taking the opportunity to build two new backlit stained-glass windows there”, Moss said.

“One will be in the design of a tree of life, and one of a beacon of hope, commemorating the people in our community who passed away during Covid.”

The design for the two new stained-glass windows in the synagogue[Missing Credit]

The bulk of the project has been funded by a handful of “remarkably and wonderfully generous” donors from within the community, Moss explained, and he is touched that the love its members have for WLS has made the project possible.

“It’s really wonderful that people feel enough of an attachment, emotionally and spiritually, to the synagogue that they want to help significantly with a project like this.” 

To learn more about West London Synagogue, click here.