Details of plans to convert the abandoned, art deco Greenbank Drive synagogue into apartments have been revealed.
The Liverpool Echo — which had featured the synagogue in its “Stop the Rot” preservation campaign — writes that a planning application for the Grade II listed building by the architectural firm NC Architects “shows a scheme to convert it into 22 apartments and build a new block built on the same site which will house 36 apartments.”
NC Architecture has posted the plans on its web site.
NC Architecture were commissioned with the difficult yet exciting task of bringing the Grade II* Listed Greenbank Drive Synagogue back to life, with a scheme that would combine both viable residential use and retaining the core spiritual social functions of the former 1,200 seat synagogue. The project was envisaged as a result of the synagogue sitting vacant for quite a few years, having closed in 2008 due to dwindling numbers and without any viable development proposals, the building became derelict and subsequently put on the English Heritage ‘Buildings at Risk’ Register.
According to the Liverpool Echo, the planning application foresees a “community area” at the center of the building “which will contain the original pews from the synagogue.” It said that the application “also details a new gallery as part of the community area, which architects say will ‘showcase the synagogue’s rich history and artefacts.'”
The architectural drawings on the NC Architecture web site appear to show the sanctuary converted into a sort of atrium, onto which two levels of apartments open. It appears to be an indoor atrium, but a tree is shown planted there.
The Echo said that the synagogue’s Ark “will be relocated to another synagogue in Israel.”
As we noted in 2013 — the red-brick synagogue was designed by the noted Liverpool architect Sir Ernest Alfred Shennan and built in 1936/37. It served its congregation until January 2008, when dwindling numbers forced the community to move and close the building. A 2008 proposal to turn it into apartments was blocked — thanks to the efforts of the 20th Century Society, which got the building upgraded to Grade II heritage status — and the building has stood empty since then.
NC Architecture states that the synagogue is “architecturally by far the most important and innovatory 20th century synagogue in England and is the finest surviving in Europe dating from the inter-war period.”
The Synagogue has a reinforced concrete and steel frame structure, with the external walls faced in golden brown hand cut bricks. There is a grand approach to the west front entrance up a flight of steps with three projecting bays with semi-circular headed curved brick arches.
Inside, a cantilevered gallery is wrapped around three sides and open at the east end with lunette windows. The innovatory ceiling configuration has a concrete barrel curve between the north and south of the building with intersecting concrete arches spanning west to east. This concrete canopy is understood to be the very first use of this architectural form in Great Britain and may have influenced similar concrete canopy designs during the 1960s.
Read full article in the Liverpool Echo, with pictures
View the plans on the NC Architecture web site