SINCE THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, BRITAIN’S OLDEST purpose-built synagogue, Bevis Marks in the City of London, has survived multiple attempts at its destruction. One made in the 1880s prompted the establishment of the Bevis Marks Anti-Demolition League, which drew the support of William Morris. It survived the Blitz and, more recently, two major IRA bombings.
Today, the synagogue — , the Gate of Heaven in Hebrew — is in a struggle against a new threat, arguably more insidious than those made before. For some time, it has been attempting to see off the planned development of the nearby site of 31 Bury Street fortrustees, and many supporters from local and national heritage groups, fear it would leave the building’s daylight provision at only one hour a day. Heaven’s gate risks being left in darkness.
