IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 A/SGS
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: SPITALFIELDS GREAT SYNAGOGUE
Date(s): 1714-1922
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.16 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Spitalfields Great Synagogue
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Spitalfields Great Synagogue was situated on the corner of Brick Lane and Fournier Street in Spitalfields. The Synagogue occupied the site of a former church built by French speaking Huguenot refugees in 1843. The building was leased in 1809 to the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. In 1843 the French Church leased the building to a community of Methodists, it then became a Wesleyan Chapel and was known as Spitalfields Chapel. In 1898 the Trustees of the French Church leased the building to the London Hebrew Tamud Torah Classes who in turn sub-let it to the Jewish Machzikei Hadath community.
The Machzikei Hadath community were particularly concerned to preserve strict orthodox standards of religious worship and observance: the congregation was largely made up of newly arrived Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who found the established practices of the Anglo-Jewish community did not match their standards of orthodoxy. Spitalfields Great Synagogue was consciously modelled on synagogues found in Eastern Europe. The congregation flourished in the early twentieth century and became known as an important centre for the local Jewish community. As the community moved from the area however attendance declined and the synagogue was closed in 1952: a new Machzikei Hadath Synagogue was opened in Golders Green in the 1980s.
The building was sold in the 1970s to a community of Muslims from Bangladesh and converted to use as a mosque.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the Spitalfields Great Synagogue, 1714-1922. The collection consists of deeds which trace the ownership and tenancies of the former synagogue from 1714 to the early twentieth century.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
The archives have been arranged in chronological order.
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to these records is held by the City of London.
Physical characteristics:
Fit.
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Gifted to the Archive in April 1953.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Publication note:
For further information please consult the LMA Information Leaflet: "Records of the Anglo-Jewish Community at London Metropolitan Archives"; available to download here: http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Records_and_archives/Visitor_information/free_information_leaflets.htm (URL correct Feb 2010).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: Description prepared in March 2010.