The Gate of Heaven

Bevis Marks, London EC3 Britain’s oldest operating synagogue has remained in continuous use in the heart of the City since 1701, as Jeremy Musson reveals. Its interior has been specially photographed for COUNTRY LIFE by candlelight

- Jeremy Musson

AS Britain’s oldest purpose-built synagogue still in use, Bevis Marks has a unique place in Jewish history (Fig 1). It is known as the ‘great old Cathedral synagogue’ and the inscription over its entrance gives its Hebrew name as the ‘Holy Congregation The Gate of Heaven’. But it is generally known by the name of the City of London street on which it stands, historically held by the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds with the name Bevis Marks—recorded as ‘Bewesmerkes’ in 1407.

Hidden from the street, Bevis Marks synagogue stands very much as it was completed in 1701—although much has changed around it and, sad to report, new development proposals on Creechurch Lane and Bury Street threaten to overshadow it. The synagogue was designed in an architectural style that echoes the Anglican churches built by the Wren office during the 1670s and 1680s. It was built for the Sephardi community; Jewish peoples and their descendants, who lived on the Iberian peninsula until they were expelled by the Spanish monarchs in 1492, making the Sephardi distinct from the Ashkenazi communities of German, French, Polish, Eastern European and Russian descent. The synagogue remains one of the places of worship associated with the Sephardi S&P (Spanish and Portuguese) community, in addition to the 1896 neo-Byzantine synagogue on Lauderdale Road in Maida Vale; Bevis Marks is also much valued by the wider Jewish world.