Manchester_Jewish_Museum

Manchester Jewish Museum

Manchester Jewish Museum

Museum in Manchester, England

Manchester Jewish Museum occupies the former Spanish and Portuguese synagogue and an adjacent building on Cheetham Hill Road in Manchester, England. It is a grade II* listed building.[1]

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The synagogue was completed in 1874 but the building became redundant through the migration of the Jewish population away from the Cheetham area further north to Prestwich and Whitefield. It re-opened as a museum in March 1984 telling the story of the history of Jewish settlement in Manchester and its community over the last 200 years.

The museum reopened on 2 July 2021 following a £6 million redevelopment and extension. The museum includes a new gallery, vegetarian café, shop and learning studio and kitchen, as well as complete restoration of the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue.[2]

Following completion of the renovation works, Manchester Jewish Museum won two awards at the annual British Construction Industry Awards (Cultural and Leisure Project of the Year and Best Small Project of the Year) alongside architects Citizens Design Bureau and structural engineers Buro Happold.[3]

The museum holds over 31,000 items in its collection, documenting the story of Jewish migration and settlement in Manchester. It includes over 530 oral history testimonies, over 20,000 photographs, 138 recorded interviews with Holocaust survivors and refugees and other objects, documents and ephemera.[4]

Moorish revival building

Entrance detail

The synagogue was built in the Moorish Revival style by the noted Manchester architect Edward Salomons in 1874. Although it is far from being the largest or most magnificent of the world's many Moorish revival synagogues, which include the opulent Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool, it is considered by architectural historian H.A. Meeks to be a "jewel".[5] The style, a homage to the architecture of Moorish Spain, perhaps seemed particularly fitting for the home of a Sephardic congregation. The two tiers of horseshoe windows on the façade are emblematic of the style, and the recessed doorway and arcade of five windows on the floor above the entrance are particularly decorative. Inside, a horseshoe arch frames the heichal and polychrome columns support the galleries. The mashrabiyya latticework on the front doors is particularly fine.[6]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. [1]
    "Manchester Jewish Museum". Visit Manchester. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  2. [2]
    "Manchester Jewish Museum reopens after £6m refurb". BBC News. 2 July 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  3. [3]
    "Manchester Jewish Museum wins two awards following renovation". 19 October 2021.
  4. [4]
    "Manchester Jewish Museum — Collection". Manchester Jewish Museum. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  5. [5]
    H.A. Meek, The Synagogue, Phaidon, London, 1995, p.199
  6. [6]
    H.A. Meek, The Synagogue, Phaidon, London, 1995, p.199, 202

Bibliography

  • Williams, Bill (1976). The Making of Manchester Jewry 1740-1875. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0631-7.
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