Manchester Jewish Museum occupies the former
Spanish and Portuguese synagogue and an adjacent building on Cheetham Hill Road in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
, England. It is a grade II*
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
.
The
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wors ...
was completed in 1874 but the building became redundant through the migration of the Jewish population away from the
Cheetham area further north to
Prestwich
Prestwich ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England, north of Manchester city centre, north of Salford and south of Bury.
Historically part of Lancashire, Prestwich was the seat of the ancient parish ...
and
Whitefield. It re-opened as a museum in March 1984 telling the story of the
history of Jewish settlement in Manchester and its community over the last 200 years.
The museum reopened on 2 July 2021 following a £6 million pound redevelopment and extension. The new museum includes a new gallery, vegetarian café, shop and learning studio and kitchen as well as complete restoration of the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue.
Following completion of the renovation works, Manchester Jewish Museum won two awards at the annual British Construction Industry Awards (Cultural and Leisure Project of the Year and Best Small Project of the Year) alongside architects Citizens Design Bureau and structural engineers Buro Happold.
The museum holds over 31,000 items in its collection, documenting the story of Jewish migration and settlement in Manchester. The collection is considered by historians to be of national and international significance and our synagogue has been described by Historic England as “one of the highlights of Victorian Gothic architecture in the country”. It includes Over 530 oral history testimonies, over 20,000 photographs, 138 recorded interviews with Holocaust Survivors and refugees and a wide-ranging collection of objects, documents and ephemera.
Moorish revival building
The synagogue was built in the
Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centu ...
style by the noted Manchester architect
Edward Salomons
Edward Salomons (1828–1906) was an English architect based in Manchester, active in the late 19th century. He is known for his architecture in the Gothic Revival and Italianate styles.
His prominent commissions in Manchester include the Manch ...
in 1874. Although it is far from being the largest or most magnificent of the world's many Moorish revival synagogues, which include the opulent
Princes Road Synagogue in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, it is considered by architectural historian H.A. Meeks to be a "jewel". The style, a homage to the architecture of Moorish Spain, perhaps seemed particularly fitting for the home of a
Sephardic
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...
congregation. The two tiers of horseshoe windows on the
facade are emblematic of the style, and the recessed doorway and arcade of five windows on the floor above the entrance are particularly decorative. Inside, a horseshoe arch frames the
heichal and polychrome columns support the galleries. The
mashrabiyya latticework on the front doors is particularly fine.
[H.A. Meek, The Synagogue, Phaidon, London, 1995, p.199, 202]
See also
*
Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
There are 236 Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester, England. In the United Kingdom, the term listed building refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural ...
*
Listed buildings in Manchester-M8
Manchester is a city in Northwest England. The M postcode area, M8 postcode area is to the north of the city centre, and contains the districts of Cheetham Hill and Crumpsall. This postcode area contains 20 Listed building#England and Wale ...
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
External links
Official websiteo
''Jewish Communities and Records - UK''(hosted by ''jewishgen.org'').
{{Authority control
Grade II* listed buildings in Manchester
Grade II* listed religious buildings and structures
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
Jews and Judaism in Manchester
Moorish Revival synagogues
Museums in Manchester
Synagogues completed in 1874
Synagogues in Manchester
Synagogues preserved as museums
Judaism in England
Religious museums in England
Moorish Revival architecture in the United Kingdom
Sephardi synagogues
Sephardi Jewish culture in the United Kingdom
Spanish and Portuguese Jews