A preservationist organisation is calling for the 55-year-old Brighton and Hove reform synagogue to be listed as a historic building in order to save its stunning array of stained glass windows.
Synagogue officials say the windows would be preserved even even if the synagogue itself is demolished to make way for a new development scheme.
The synagogue was built in 1967-68 and designed by the architects Derek Sharp Associates. The Jewish Chronicle has reported that its dwindling congregation voted to allow it to be torn down to make way for a housing development project that would include a small prayer room elsewhere on the site.
The sanctuary is noted for its expansive stained glass windows on the east wall flanking the Ark, whose stained glass doors are part of the ensemble. Designed by artist John Petts, the windows depict religious iconography and well as images, including flames and barbed wire, that evoke the Holocaust; the Imperial War Museum has designated the complex a Holocaust memorial.
“The site is unique in the UK in that it serves as both a Holocaust memorial and a place of worship, with its luminescent east facing windows described by Art Historian Dr Alison Smith as ‘one of the great religious artworks of the 20th century,’” the Twentieth Century Society said on its web site, in an appeal posted August 17.
The main windows are composed of some 1,800 individual pieces of coloured glass, with the central panel showing the Burning Bush in fiery reds and yellows, flanked by side panels in blues, greens and greys, with Symbols referencing the key Jewish festivals Pesach, Shavuot, Succoth and Hanukkah. The elements binding them all together are broken barbed wire, and the chain link broken by a sapling – representing the oppression of the Jewish people through history, and the atrocities of the Holocaust.
The Jewish Chronicle said that though the congregation had voted at a general meeting to go ahead with the redevelopment plan, some members were concerned about the fate of the stained glass.
Synagogue officials say that any new development would preserve the windows, and one published architectural plan shows them incorporated into a new, smaller shul on the site.
“We are fully aware of, and have always paid great attention to, the importance of our synagogue’s stained-glass windows and ark doors,” congregation president Michael Harris said in a statement. “Our development project, in all its reiterations, has always included plans to ensure these windows and doors are safely and securely looked after, and then prominently displayed in the new building.”
At a general meeting in February this year, a substantial majority of our members voted in favour of a resolution to sign a contract for redevelopment of our synagogue, subject to suitable planning consent. Following concerns expressed at that meeting, a sub-committee has been set up to examine all aspects of the redevelopment as it might affect our stained glass windows and doors.
While the sub-committee has not yet begun its work, there is no question of any plans being finalised until this sub-committee has reported.
This is the second time that the C20 Society has called for the building to be listed. An appeal in 2017 was not successful.
Read more in the Jewish Chronicle article
Read about the case in Architects Journal, with Harris’s statement
See a published architectural plan showing preserved windows
2 comments on “UK: Preservation campaigners call for 1960s Brighton and Hove reform synagogue to be listed as a historic building in order to save its stained glass windows”
Given that the Imperial War Museum have designated it as a Holocaust Memorial what on earth are Historic England thinking by not Listing this. They seem quite happy to List some very strange buildings such as Milton Keynes Bus Station which, in my view, has far less architectural merit than B&HRS.
Very important — Save the windows!! Find a way — Incorporate the Chapel or at the very least the windows.