The Wilson Road Synagogue was the largest

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 worshi ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

for much of the twentieth-century. Sheffield had a Jewish population from the 1780s, and its first synagogue was built in 1851 on Fig Tree Lane in the city centre. However, communal disputes led to a second congregation being established on North Church Street in 1914. This group constructed a synagogue on Wilson Road, near

Hunters Bar Hunter's Bar is a roundabout and former toll road, toll bar on Ecclesall Road in south-west Sheffield, England; the toll bar was active until the late 19th century. The name also attaches to the area surrounding Hunter's Bar roundabout at the in ...

, in 1930. Wilson Road Synagogue Succah

The building was designed by Mansell Jenkinson in a classical style, featuring a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

in the

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

. It is built of brick, with

faience Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major ad ...

dressings, and also has notable internal features, including a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

ark Ark or ARK may refer to: Biblical narratives and religion Hebrew word ''teva'' * Noah's Ark, a massive vessel said to have been built to save the world's animals from a flood * Ark of bulrushes, the boat of the infant Moses Hebrew ''aron'' * ...

, choir gallery and hardwood

pew A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

s.Ruth Harman et al, ''Pevsner Architectural Guide: Sheffield'', p.262 The

sukkah A or succah (; he, סוכה ; plural, ' or ''sukkos'' or ''sukkoth'', often translated as "booth") is a temporary hut constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is topped with branches and often well decorated w ...

is in a neighbouring building, designed so that its flat roof can be slid open. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the city centre synagogue was destroyed by bombing, and much of its community came to worship at Wilson Road. However, they later established a new building, Kingfield Hall, in

Nether Edge Nether may refer to: * The Nether, the hell-like dimension in the video game ''Minecraft'' * ''The Nether'', a sci-fi play * ''Nether'' (video game), a first-person multiplayer survival video game for Microsoft Windows See also *Kingdom of the ...

. The Jewish population of the city reached about 1,500 in the 1950s, but then entered a long decline. In the 1960s, the two communities joined together, and in 2000, the resulting independent congregation moved to a new building at the Kingfield Hall site. The Wilson Road Synagogue was subsequently converted into a church. Both synagogue and sukkah were listed at

grade II 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 Irel ...

in 1992, along with the boundary wall and gates.

References

{{Reflist Synagogues completed in 1930 Former synagogues in England Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Grade II listed religious buildings and structures Neoclassical synagogues Religious buildings and structures in Sheffield