© Blake Ezra (Courtesy Bevis Marks synagogue) Photography 2016.
The City of London’s Planning Committee has voted unanimously to set up a Conservation Area around historic Bevis Marks Synagogue, a Grade I listed shul built in 1701 that is Britain’s oldest synagogue in continuous use. The move would protect the synagogue from hazards from tall buildings and other urban development at the central London location.
Such a zone, the Jewish Chronicle wrote, “will not prevent commercial developments in the neighbourhood, but applicants will, in future, have to surmount significant hurdles.”
The Committee had carried out a public consultation on the plans between September 21 and November 6 and reported that there had been “welcome, unprecedent levels of engagement for a City conservation area proposal” and “overwhelming support for the designation of the Creechurch area as a conservation area.”
Several options for the area’s boundaries were proposed.
Of the 976 responses, the overwhelming majority — around 84.5 percent — of those who made a choice chose the borders (Option 3) proposed by representatives of Bevis Marks, an expanded area that better protected the synagogue.
The vote to establish the conservation area took place December 12. If approved in the new year by the Court of Common Council, the zone would be London’s 28th conservation area.
“The Conservation Area will help ensure that heritage factors are given the weight they deserve when future planning decisions are taken,” Melody Salem Chair, Bevis Marks Synagogue Heritage Foundation , said in an email statement. “We look forward to continuing to work constructively with the City’s planning officers as they prepare the crucial Management Plan, which will outline how the conservation area will be protected. This too will include a public consultation.”
The My London web site quoted Bevis Marks Rabbi Shalom Morris as saying, “We are very pleased the City have decided to proceed with the Conservation Area, and with the boundary we support. This is a very special and historic part of the City, not least for the Jewish community, and it is under constant threat from insensitive development proposals. The Conservation Area will help ensure that heritage factors are given the weight they deserve when future planning decisions are taken.”
Two years ago, the Planning Committee rejected plans to build a 48-storey office tower near the synagogue,
My London quoted Shravan Joshi, chairman of the planning and transportation committee, as saying: “After an unprecedented and welcome level of public engagement, the committee has voted unanimously to approve proposals for the Creechurch Conservation Area, giving due consideration to the results of the consultation. I would like to thank all those stakeholders who contributed, including our friends at the Bevis Marks Synagogue.”
Read full details of the public consultation
Read article on the My London web site