Central Synagogue Heywood Street Manchester

A NEW SYNAGOGUE FOR MANCHESTER - The architect for the proposed Central Synagogue in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, is Mr John Knight. The site is at the junction of Heywood Street and Bellott Street. The men will pass into the main shul, or synagogue, by way of a large porch facing Heywood Street and an entrance hall. The women’s galleries will be reached by stairways on either side of this main porch. The ground floor will accommodate five hundred men and the galleries four hundred women. Behind the main building will be a small shul and a large classroom. The buildings are to have pantile roofs, and will be faced externally with terra-cotta, stone finished, and special facing bricks. The height to the main ceiling is 32 feet, and the building will measure 170 feet by 86 feet overall. The main shul is to be 83 feet by 57 feet, the small shul 45 feet by 27 feet, and the classroom 57 feet by 27 feet. [ Manchester Guardian 23 April 1926 page 23]

THE SYNAGOGUE IN CHEETHAM HILL - This is a very effective building, especially as seen from a point immediately in front of the great central arch of the entrance. When the flank is seen as well as the front, as in this photograph, there is a slight inconsistency between the windowed main body of the building and its monumental entrance. This latter, however, is very dignified and solemn. The big pylons of brickwork surmounted by white panelled frieze and rich pantile roof effectively buttress the great Venetian archway between them. This again, with its deep barrel vault in the same material as the columns contrasting with the massive brickwork above it, is a fine impressive feature. The only doubt about the composition is whether it is sufficiently bound together into one whole or whether it can be said to consist of three independent elements, two pylons and an arched portico standing side by side. Professor C H Reilly. [Manchester Guardian 27 August 1928 page 5]

Reference    Builder, 30 July 1926 Page 193 (tenders)
Reference    Manchester Guardian 23 April 1926 page 23 with illustration
Reference    Manchester Guardian 30 July 1928 page 11-opening
Reference    Manchester Guardian 31 July 1928 page 12-photograph of interior
Reference    Manchester Guardian 27 August 1928 page 5 with photograph of the exterior.