Middle Street Synagogue, Brighton
| Middle Street Synagogue | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Basic information | |
| Location | Middle Street, Brighton, Brighton and Hove,  UK
|
| Geographic coordinates | 50°49′16″N 0°8′34″W / 50.82111°N 0.14278°W |
| Affiliation | Judaism |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Year consecrated | 1875 |
| Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Synagogue |
| Status | Preserved; intermittently active |
| Heritage designation | Grade II* listed |
| Architectural description | |
| Architect(s) | Thomas Lainson |
| Architectural style | Neo-Byzantine |
| Groundbreaking | 1874 |
| Completed | 1875 |
| Construction cost | £12,000 (£1.04 million in 2017) |
| Direction of façade | West |
The Middle Street Synagogue is a synagogue in the centre of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It was the centre for Jewish worship in Brighton and Hove for more than a century. Although it is not in full-time use, the building is still open at certain times, and services are still held at certain times of the year. It has been listed at Grade II*, reflecting its architectural and historic importance.
A Jewish community existed in the Brighton area for nearly a century before Middle Street synagogue was built in 1874. A Bavarian settler, Emanuel Hyam Cohen, established a Jewish school on the seafront in the 1780s and a place of worship between 1789 and 1792. The latter moved from Jew Street (off Bond Street) to West Street in 1808, but there is no record of the nature of the buildings; meetings may in fact have taken place in private houses. The Brighton Regency Synagogue was built in 1823 on land leased from a hotel, and enlarged by David Mocatta (architect of Brighton railway station, and member of the prominent Jewish Mocatta family) in 1836. It was used until the new synagogue was opened in Middle Street in 1875. Situated on Devonshire Place, the stuccoed building in the Classical style still stands; an inscription on the outside, including the Hebrew calendar year of opening (5598), can still be seen on the entablature, but it is now in commercial use. The Chanukah menorah at the Middle Synagogue was brought from the Brighton Regency Synagogue.
Chief Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler attended the start of construction work in Middle Street on 19 November 1874. The architect, Thomas Lainson, had been responsible for many buildings in Hove, including a Congregational church and the residential development on the Wick Farm estate, and also the Bristol Road Methodist Church in Kemptown. After ten months of work at a cost of £12,000 (equivalent to £1.04 million in 2017), the dedication ceremony took place on 23 September 1875 and the synagogue was opened. Its capacity of 300 was six times higher than that of its predecessor.
...
Wikipedia