A historic trust is appealing to British Jewry to assist in uncovering the history of one of London’s forgotten and most hidden synagogues.
The shul, nestled in the shadow of London’s financial district and glass skyscrapers, and appearing out of place among an otherwise neat row of typical Georgian-style English back gardens, is a cultural relic of London’s once thriving Jewish East End community.
The house and attached shul, located at 19 Princelet Street, is today one of the earliest surviving buildings in London’s Spitalfields and is the only surviving purpose-built synagogue in the area, established by Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who once lived in the area in large numbers.
Today, the synagogue’s once vibrant history and colours are only hinted at between its stained yellow walls, chipped dark wood panelling, and now opaque green stained-glass skylight.
The ark in the synagogue at 19 Princelet Street (Photo: Daniel Ben-David)
High up amid heavy iron chandeliers, the names of the synagogue’s benefactors still appear in gold embossed lettering on the gallery’s front panels, many dating back to soon after the construction of the shul some 150 years ago. A large wooden ark, once containing the community’s Torah, engraved with Stars of David and Hebrew lettering, still stands at the far end.
Historian and television presenter Dan Cruickshank, a founder of the trust, says it is their hope that repair works be carried out, so the building can once again demonstrate “how these people strived and thrived – often in most difficult circumstances and far from home – making a major contribution to the cultural and economic life of London.
“The fabric of the building tells these stories in a most atmospheric way, but the trust wants to add the personal stories of the people that worshipped in the building. This could do so much to bring it back to life. The synagogue closed for worship in the late 1960s, but there is still time to collect memories of it when in use.”
Names of benefactors on the panels of the ladies' gallery of the synagogue at 19 Princelet Street (Photo: Daniel Ben-David)
The five-storey Grade II listed building was originally built in 1719 as a merchant house in classic Georgian style, and by 1740, records show it was occupied by a wealthy silk merchant’s family, the Ogiers.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, large numbers of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe began settling in east London, many having fled the anti-Jewish pogroms of tsarist Russia, beginning in 1881.
Towards the end of the century, it is estimated that somewhere between 80 and 95 per cent of Princelet Street’s buildings were home to Jewish occupants, many of them seamstresses and tailors.
Sewing equipment found at 19 Princelet Street
Purchased by a community of newly arrived Polish Jewish immigrants in 1869, 19 Princelet Street lay at the heart of this once bustling community, serving as a Hebrew school, wedding venue and place of worship for about a century.
A synagogue within the house was constructed and consecrated by the shul’s Loyal United Friends Friendly Society in 1870 to accommodate the burgeoning community, and, by the early 1890s, it had been extended to occupy the entirety of the rear garden with a basement below it.
The building’s top two floors were rented out to members of the community. It’s last occupant, David Rodinsky, a reclusive Jewish autodidact, lived there with his mother and sister for some years before disappearing mysteriously in the 1960s, leaving behind all of his belongings. At the time of Rodinsky’s disappearance, the area’s once thriving Jewish community had so too vanished.
The shul was eventually deconsecrated in 1980 after Spitalfields Historic Building Trust, a charity formed in 1977 to “battle for the fabric, history, and community” of the area, bought the building along with all the original artefacts and furniture in situ, including the dusty contents of Rodinsky’s room which had remained, along with everything else, undisturbed for about two decades.
The synagogue at 19 Princelet Street (Photo: Daniel Ben-David)
Today, atop several asymmetric flights of worn wooden stairs, stacked between low ceilings and stained lichen-green walls, Rodinsky’s personal effects and other reminders of Jewish life, such as a menorah and photographs of unidentified kippah-wearing individuals, still sit, awaiting organisation.
It is the trust’s intention that the building is restored into a public heritage site that will share the stories of the many people who lived there, transforming the building into its twenty-first century iteration.
The trust, in collaboration with the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archive, has started to document and preserve the building’s historic artefacts. It is now appealing to British Jewry for stories, photographs, memories and information about the synagogue site so that its history may be further unfolded, and traces of its former occupants uncovered.
A major capital works renovation project is in the very early planning stages and applications have been made to the heritage sector, the trust says, but private donors are needed to ensure the important work is carried out gently and thoroughly. Once building works are complete, the trust intends to open it to the public with a broad programme of events and activities on offer, reflecting the building’s history and special place in the local community of Spitalfields.
Artefacts, including a Chanukiah, found at 19 Princelet Street (Photo: Daniel Ben-David)
Cruickshank added that the trust plans to reach out to the descendants of those listed on the shul’s gallery, a “demanding if rewarding task – so help is needed – and there is of course some urgency because the quest must be underway before these memories fade. Please make contact if you believe you can help in any way.”
If you have any information to share, please get in touch with the Spitalfields Trust at info@spitalfieldstrust.com
