Summary
Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue, a syngagogue built in 1966-1967 to designs by Derek Sharp Associates, with stained glass by John Petts.
Reasons for Designation
The Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue, built in 1966-1967 to designs by Derek Sharp Associates, with stained glass by John Petts, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* the stained glass is an early and unusual example of a Holocaust memorial in Britain; the dedication of the synagogue building itself to the memory of Jewish victims of the Holocaust underlines the historic interest;
* the work of the artist John Petts is well-regarded in both stained glass and wood-engraving; the glass at the Brighton and Hove Synagogue is probably the best-known example of his stained glass in Britain.
Architectural interest:
* the synagogue has a bold form with a distinctive roof profile and pierced brick screens, its architectural interest elevated by John Petts's stained glass which forms a significant feature externally as well as internally;
* the prayer hall is dominated by the three stained-glass windows spanning the east wall, and the central Ark doors, architectural integration being achieved through the placement of the triple vaults above, and the timber panels which frame the glass;
* the windows and Ark doors, conceived as a Holocaust memorial, combine artistic ingenuity and flair with an allusive iconographic programme representing the history of the persecution of Jewish people, including subtle references to the Holocaust and Nazi concentration camps.
History
The movement for Reform Judaism began in Germany in the early C19, and emerged in Britain in 1840 with the establishment of the West London Synagogue of British Jews by members of the Sephardi Bevis Marks Synagogue and the Ashkenazi Great Synagogue. Rather than strict adherence to traditional synagogue ritual and religious observance, an evolving approach was adopted, intended to bring Judaism in line with modern, and British, ways of life: services were no longer conducted solely in Hebrew but in a mixture of Hebrew and English, sections of liturgy might be omitted if they no longer corresponded to the beliefs of the congregation, equality was, increasingly, accorded to women, and it was permissible to drive to synagogue on the Sabbath. A number of other breakaway congregations were formed during the following century, the term 'Reform' being used increasingly. In 1942 the Association of Synagogues of Great Britain was formed, eventually becoming the Movement for Reform Judaism. There are now 42 Reform congregations in England. In general, the plan of Reform synagogues differs from tradition in that the Bimah is placed with the Ark at the east end, rather than centrally, and that no segregation of the sexes occurs within the worship space; the adoption of these features occurred at different times in different congregations. The inclusion of an organ is also a feature of some Reform synagogues; the Orthodox tradition forbids the playing of musical instruments in the synagogue on the Sabbath.
The founders of the Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue originally came together in 1955, united by their desire for a modern framework in which to live and worship under the principles of Judaism. The group initially hired a meeting room in Boyle House, Third Avenue; the Czech Scrolls Project at Westminster Synagogue loaned a Torah scroll which had come from a Czechoslovakian synagogue destroyed by the Nazis. As the congregation grew the decision was taken to join the Association of Reform Synagogues, and in 1956 the first rabbi of the new community, Erwin Solomon Rosenblum (1922-1996), began his 28-year tenure. In 1958 the congregation moved to 65 Holland Road (previously a Dr Barnado’s Home); by 1962, with over 300 members, a new larger synagogue building was needed. A plot of land on Palmeira Avenue was acquired for £1,000 from Lewis Cohen, Baron Cohen of Brighton, founder of the Alliance Building Society. (Palmeira Avenue is named for Sir Isaac Goldsmid, Lord Palmeira, founder of the London and Brighton and South Coast Railway, and a leading figure in Jewish emancipation and the early Reform Movement). The architectural firm Derek Sharp Associates was employed to design the new synagogue building, which included a large communal hall, classroom space, offices and a caretaker’s flat. A lift was added soon after the building opened. The building cost in the region of £161,281, funds being raised through donations; a number of economies were made in the course of planning the project.
The foundation stone was laid by the rabbi in July 1966, and the synagogue dedicated to the glory of God, and to the memory of the six million Jewish victims of Nazi genocide during the Second World War. However, the Board of Deputies of British Jews expressed anxiety that placing a plaque to that effect outside the building might attract anti-Semitic activity, so the foundation stone omitted this reference, which instead is inscribed on the dedication plaque within the building. At the stone-laying ceremony, Rabbi Rosenblum noted the dedication with the words, 'God forbid that this should be misunderstood and believed to be done to perpetuate hatred towards anyone in the world... the Hebrew name of our synagogue is 'Sha'are Shalom - Gates of Peace'. The synagogue building was consecrated on 10 September 1967. The communal AJEX Hall (later the AJEX Centre, named for the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen) was dedicated separately in July 1968.
Whilst the building was under construction, a suite of three stained glass windows was commissioned from the artist John Petts. Petts also produced glass panels forming the doors of the Holy Ark containing the Scrolls of the Law, the first known example of glass being used for Ark doors in this country. Marc Chagall had been approached first, but had declined the commission owing to his advanced age. Petts recorded that the windows and Ark doors were ‘dedicated to the memory of the six millions of Jewish people murdered by the Nazi regime in Europe’ (for example, in the catalogue for a 1975 retrospective of his work at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery). According to the art historian Alison Smith, he initially considered using imagery evoking the concentration camps more directly, but abandoned this idea as being too harrowing for a place of worship (Smith, 2010). Instead, in collaboration with Rabbi Rosenblum, whose parents and siblings had been murdered at Auschwitz, he devised an iconographic programme employing motifs from the Hebrew Bible and references to Jewish feasts. In an oral history interview Petts described the overarching theme: ‘It is really the history, in terms of symbols, it is the history of the persecution of the Jewish people since being slaves in Egypt. But all the amazing things that happened to enable them to survive’ (Imperial War Museum, 1987). The windows include Biblical images used by other artists in confronting the Holocaust; the Burning Bush, which features in the central window, and is described by Petts as ‘symbol of the presence and voice of the Lord’, had been used in Nathan Rapoport’s 1964 Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs in Philadelphia, America’s earliest public Holocaust memorial, whilst the Ram caught in the Thicket, signifying the Sacrifice of Isaac, had been referenced by artists including Chagall. In line with Jewish convention, the designs do not include human figures. The Ark doors were completed in 1967, in time for the consecration ceremony; the windows set above in the eastern wall were installed in 1968 and 1969.
The first Holocaust memorials in Britain were placed within Jewish buildings and cemeteries; for example, in 1954 the Cardiff Reform Synagogue unveiled a tablet naming relatives of synagogue members killed during the Holocaust. Another early example is the 1957 memorial in the Liberal Jewish Cemetery at Willesden, London. A 1960s etched-glass window commemorating the Warsaw Uprising formed one of a series by RL Rothschild for Birmingham Central Synagogue (some of the windows were reused in the 2013 replacement synagogue). A window thought to date from the late 1950s or 1960s, made for the Western Synagogue, London, but now at the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, includes detailed concentration camp images, rare in stained glass in Britain at this time. The listed sculpture group by Fred Kormis in Gladstone Park, Dollis Hill, London, unveiled in 1969, was dedicated ‘to the memory of prisoner of war and victims of concentration camps 1914-1945’. Britain’s first national Holocaust memorial was unveiled in Hyde Park in 1983, designed by Mark Badger, Richard Seifert and Derek Lovejoy and Partners. Since the 1990s, Holocaust memorials have become far more numerous, taking a variety of forms. The Holocaust memorial glass at the Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue is therefore a relatively early example of British Holocaust commemoration. The dedication of the synagogue itself to the memory of victims of the Holocaust appears to be unusual – no other examples have been identified in Britain, and internationally it may have been the first active synagogue to have been so dedicated.
Derek Sharp (born 1928) trained at the Northern Polytechnic in London. In 1955-1961 he was responsible for remodelling a former Methodist church in Amhurst Park as the North London Progressive Synagogue. Sharp is understood to have formed Derek Sharp Associates in the 1960s. The practice undertook numerous small-scale social housing projects; lauded designs undertaken in association with the Apex Co-ownership Housing Association, with Laurence Abbott as architect, included Apex Close in Beckenham and Apex Drive in Frimley, Surrey (1966-1969). Other buildings included an experimental children’s centre in Paddington (circa 1974). Sharp was a partner in the Comprehensive Design Group by 1976-1979, when he was responsible for a controversial Boots store in the centre of Brighton, its prominent exposed frame now concealed by remodelling. Sharp wrote on the practicalities of architectural work, including a book on The Business of Architectural Practice (1986). He also wrote an article on the use of PVC cladding at the Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue, noting the suitability of the material to the seaside situation, as well for its properties of reflecting light internally.
John Petts (1914-1991) is best known today for his wood engravings and stained-glass windows although he started his career as a painter. Born in London, Petts spent his working life in Wales, abandoning his studies at the Royal Academy in 1935 in order to move to Snowdonia with his first wife, the artist Brenda Chamberlain, with whom he set up the Caseg Press. A conscientious objector during the Second World War, in 1944 Petts volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps; placed in the 224 Parachute Field Ambulance with the 6th Airborne Division, he served first in Holland and then in Germany, supporting the Rhine crossings in 1945, before joining the march to the Baltic. The officers of the 224 Parachute Field Ambulance entered the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at its liberation; Petts therefore heard about conditions first hand, and expressed regret at not having been a witness himself (IWM, 1987). Petts was next sent to Palestine as part of the British peace-keeping force, where he transferred to the Education Corps, becoming a lecturer in artistic studies at the Army Formation College in Mount Carmel, followed by a period as art editor for education publications in Cairo. The Caseg Press closed in 1951, after which Petts served on the Welsh Committee of the Arts Council, becoming Assistant Regional Director in 1952. In 1957 he was appointed lecturer in design and crafts at the Carmarthen School of Arts, where he taught himself to make stained glass; by 1960 this was his principal output as a freelance artist. Petts was a Christian, and the majority of his stained glass was for places of worship; he produced over 80 windows, mainly for churches in Wales. Probably his best-known work in this medium was for the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, created in response to the 1963 racist bombing which killed four African-American Sunday School pupils; the replacement west window depicted a crucified Black figure. In 1966 Petts was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, and it was whilst he was in America undertaking research at the University of Texas at Austin that he received the commission for the Brighton and Hove windows.
Rabbi Rosenblum remained as rabbi of the Brighton and Hove Reform Synagogue until 1984, continuing as emeritus rabbi until 1995.
Details
Synagogue, built in 1966-1967 to designs by Derek Sharp Associates, with stained glass by John Petts. The builders were HJ Paris.
MATERIALS: constructed on a reinforced concrete frame clad in russet-coloured brickwork, laid in stretcher bond, with bands of soldier bond forming aprons and lintels to openings. The triplet of barrel vaults to the roof are clad in corrugated asbestos sheeting with an experimental system of PVC interlocking cladding to the horizontal faces, as well as to the internal vaults. Apart from those holding the stained glass panels, window openings generally contain timber casements with fixed sections, the majority being screened by pierced brick panels made up of tessellated circles.
PLAN: the synagogue stands on a corner plot at the junction of Palmeira Avenue and Eaton Road. It has a roughly rectangular footprint, with the main entrance facing east to Palmeira Avenue, and a canted projection to the west containing the main stair. There are secondary stairs in the north-east and south-east corners; the building has a number of subsidiary entrances not itemised in the text.
The building is of four storeys set on a sloping site, with a void beneath the building to the north-west. The AJEX Centre comprises a double-height hall at lower-ground level, with single-height service rooms along the north and east sides, above which, at ground-floor level, is the entrance concourse and offices, accessed from Palmeira Avenue. The synagogue prayer hall is a double-height space at first-floor level, with areas for overflow seating/classrooms to either side and to the back, achieving a capacity of approximately 630. At second-floor level is the former caretaker’s flat, which has a mezzanine within the western end northern roof vault.
EXTERIOR: the building is a wide brick cuboid crowned with a triple-vault roof running east-west.
The principal, eastern, elevation, is composed of a wide brick facade, from which rises the central second-floor section, consisting of three bays filled with the leaded glazing of the Petts windows indicating the location of the Ark, topped by the three semi-circular gable ends of the triple barrel-vaulted roof, the white PVC weatherboarding emphasising the building’s distinctive silhouette. The entrance is offset, beneath the north window, and is protected by a semi-circular concrete canopy supported on slender metal posts. Above the door opening is a Hebrew inscription ('Sha'are Shalom') in metal letters, translated as ‘“Gates of Peace” Congregation’. The opening holds a pair of doors flanked by a single door to either side; all are solid timber with a relief grid of square panels, one of which is glazed in each door. To the north of the entrance is an opening, understood originally to have served as a hatch, accessed from the north-east stair, but now containing a sign announcing the synagogue. Below, the foundation stone reads: ‘THIS FOUNDATION STONE OF THE BRIGHTON AND HOVE NEW SYNAGOGUE WAS LAID BY RABBI ERWIN S. ROSENBLUM, ON THE 17TH JULY 1966 – 29TH TAMMUZ 5726 IN DEDICATION TO THE GLORY OF GOD’. To the south, the full-height ground-floor windows are fronted by brick screens. Further south is a plain secondary entrance. The elevation is blind at first-floor level.
The blind west elevation is defined by a canted projection containing the stair; its central facet, laid in soldier bond, has a rectangular timber-framed casement window to each of the three upper levels. At the obtuse angles of the projection the right-angled bricks meet to create a jagged junction. A slightly detached lift tower stands adjacent to the stair projection. The gable ends of the vaulted roof rise above the parapet, as on the east elevation. The north and south elevations express the frame of the building, with upright brick-clad bay divisions, between which is screened glazing, and horizontal panels of soldier-bond brickwork. On the south elevation there are four lower-ground entrances to the AJEX Centre, fronted by a narrow terrace; on the north elevation the lower-ground and ground floors have narrow horizontal strips of windows above panels of soldier-bond brickwork in place of the screened glazing. The second-storey section, rising above these elevations, has screened clerestory glazing, lighting the prayer hall.
INTERIOR: within the public areas of the building, use is made of simple mahogany fittings, mainly veneered, with a recessed edge detail; doors are flush veneered with painted moulded architraves, and the beaded skirtings are painted. There are occasional fixed bookcases and display cases. Floors are generally carpeted. The building contains a number of memorial plaques and panels, the most notable of which is the dedication plaque in the entrance corridor, which reads ‘LEST WE FORGET / THIS SYNAGOGUE IS DEDICATED TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND TO THE MEMORY OF THE SIX MILLION JEWS WHO PERISHED IN NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMPS / IN HONOUR OF THE DEAD / AN INSPIRATION TO THE LIVING.’
The entrance lobby is enclosed by glazed doors opening into the wide entrance corridor, which leads to the stair at the far end of the building. A Hebrew inscription over the glazed doors is from Psalm 118:19, translated: ‘Open for me the gates of righteousness, I shall enter and thank God’. The concourse is plainly detailed, with a timber band at impost level concealing light fittings. Along the south side full-height windows overlook the AJEX Centre on the lower-ground floor, and on the north side a series of doors lead to offices and service rooms. To the west is the small synagogue, also overlooking the AJEX Centre; this contains the Ark and lectern given at the synagogue’s foundation in 1955. The main stair has an angular geometric appearance, following the form of the canted west end of the building. It has a timber handrail with aluminium balusters of flat section, and a flush timber string.
The synagogue prayer hall is a double-height space entered on the first floor. The arrangement of the hall follows accepted Reform practice, with a platform at the east end combining Ark and Bimah, and seating for both men and women in rows facing east. Around the main seating area are folding timber partitions which open to provide space for additional seating; further partitions allow that space to be subdivided as classrooms. There is a choir gallery to the west, with an organ. The Ark is placed centrally on the east wall, the centre of the platform being approached by three wide steps, flanked by lecterns, one serving as Bimah, and the other as pulpit. The cuboid lecterns are faced with channelled timber, of a piece with the front of the platform, and with its ceremonial benches and chairs. A wide timber band follows the perimeter of the main hall; towards the centre of the eastern wall this fans downwards and breaks forwards to form a setting and frame for the Ark doors. This feature also serves to accentuate the horizontal windows above, which are topped by a timber band; this band continues along the cross beams of the roof’s three semi-circular vaults. The vaults are clad in the same PVC boarding as used on the exterior, and have tall screened clerestory windows beneath. The seating in the main hall is formed of timber benches of mid-century date brought from another place of worship.
The Ark is enclosed by two eleven-feet-high stained-glass doors in round-headed steel frames, together taking the shape of a Luhot (a stone representing the Tablets of the Law, usually placed above the Ark in a synagogue) which can be drawn sideways to access the Torah scrolls; in front, the Ner Tamid (perpetual lamp) is suspended. The subject of the glazing is the revelation of the Tablets of the Law: one Tablet is depicted on each door, bearing the first two words of five of the ten commandments. The tablets are depicted set on the top of Mount Sinai, represented as rocky pinnacles engulfed in flames, the whole described by Sharman Kadish as being ‘in a jagged geometric style in vivid primary colours’ (Kadish, 2011).
Above, the east wall is spanned by the stained-glass windows, each one composed of five panels. Kadish notes that the overall programme of the windows, indicated by the order of the festivals represented, reads from left to right, rather than from right to left, as might be expected in a Jewish worship space; Kadish has suggested that this reveals the non-Jewish background of the artist. The colour of the glass is predominantly blues and purple; in the central window bright red and orange tones break through the blue to represent the burning bush, behind which is the Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem, with a Star of David and the Crown of the Torah above. Petts’s 1975 account of the windows describes the left-hand window thus: ‘The Shofer [shofar] Horn, the call to prayer, the Dove of Peace, the Fruitful Vine, the sacred letter Shin, the Menorah, seven-branched candlestick, the Ram caught in a thicket, Jacob’s ladder, barbed wire of bondage (the concentration camps), the Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of Fire, the Spring from the Rock.’ The barbed wire is a subtle but insistent motif, winding across the three right-hand panels, and edging into the central window. It has been suggested that the wire is shown as being broken, symbolising the liberation of the Jews from the concentration camps (Spector, East Sussex Record Office). The right-hand window represents Hebrew Festivals: the three Pilgrim Festivals - Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost) and Succot (Tabernacles) - with a central emblem of Hanukkah. Petts describes the subjects as, ‘The Pasach Egg, the Cup of Elijah and fruits of the Passover Feast, the Scrolls of the Law, the Tree of Life, Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights, the Succoth booth of palm and myrtle branches at the Feast of Tabernacles (thanksgiving), broken chains of bondage (Egypt)’. Reflecting the barbed wire in the left-hand window, the chains extend across much of the right-hand composition, and into the central window. On the timber bands above the windows are Hebrew inscriptions in metal letters, translated as ‘Serve the Lord with Joy’ (Psalm 100:2); ‘I have set the Lord before me always’ (Psalm 16.8); and ‘Know before whom you stand’ (adaptation of the Babylonian Talmud).
The AJEX Centre is the double-height hall at lower-ground level. The south wall of the hall is almost entirely glazed, with glazed double doors and with windows above. The posts and beams of the construction are expressed, encased in plaster or in timber veneer; the floor is parquet block. There is a recessed stage to the east, above which is a panel with an abstracted Hanukiah in timber relief. Kitchens and service areas occupy single-height spaces to the north and east sides of the hall.
