MARCUS K GLASS • HOLLAND ROAD SYNAGOGUE
by Dr Winston Pickett
Situated on the gradient cusp of Furze Hill in an otherwise residential section of Hove, the Holland Road Synagogue stands out for its curvaceous architectural design. Small wonder. When it was opened in 1930 following a ceremonious cornerstone-setting by Chief Rabbi Dr. Joseph Hertz only one year earlier, its up-and-coming, yet already accomplished architect Marcus Kenneth Glass had successfully converted a stodgy brick Victorian ladies’ gymnasium into a bright Art Deco-esque structure that architectural historians of the period would later refer to as ‘cinematic’.
Even today it stands out for its clean almost retro-modern design and is designated by Brighton and Hove Council as a Locally Listed Heritage Asset. Additionally the gold-standard architectural guide ‘Pevsner’ notes that the synagogue “displays an unusual architectural style, reminiscent of Viennese Jugendstil.”
Aesthetics aside, what distinguishes the Holland Road Synagogue even further is its history,
particularly within the corpus of the Jewish houses of worship constructed by its architect. For of all the synagogues built by the Newcastle-based Marcus Kenneth Glass, who died at the young age of 45 two years after completing Holland Road Shul, ours is his last synagogue both standing and in active use as a beit knesset.
In his native Newcastle Upon Tyne, Glass’s Edwardian Jesmond Synagogue, completed in 1914-15, was closed in 1986, converted into a high school and is now on the property market.
The Ryhope Road Synagogue in Sunderland, which Glass designed and was opened in 1928, displayed many of the architect’s trademark Orientalist, Byzantine features but was sold to a private businessman in 2006, who rented out its façade and gutted interior in 2013 for a grade B film production.
Finally, Glass’s Clapton Federation Synagogue in London (E5), which was opened in 1932 with many of the identical interior design features as Holland Road Synagogue, was “demolished by Jewish developers in 2006 in the face of attempts by local conservationists to get it Listed” (S. Kadish, p. 187).
Glass, whose work has gone under-appreciated probably due to his death at an early age, began his architectural career in 1914, having arrived in Newcastle as a toddler with his family from Riga, the capital of Lithuania, in the 1890s. Noteworthy for a first-generation Jewish émigré, Glass became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1925, having already made his mark with the design and construction of Jesmond Synagogue, whose distinctive features would be replicated in his three main works: solid corner towers, luchot (tablets of the 10 Commandments) above curved gables and starburst stained glass window, red and yellow brickwork ablaq, and a colourful mosaic band over the entrance porch – some of which can be found at Holland Road Synagogue, his first shul built in the South of England.
Glass’s interiors, the only living example of which can be found at Holland Road, were more evocative still: a painted and gilded plasterwork ark canopy featuring Byzantine & Islamic motifs; two chevron-patterned columns on either side of the aron kodesh, and an ornate, wood-carved pulpit made by craftsmen from Newcastle.
Glass deliberately chose Islamic and Byzantine motifs because he felt they were lacking from London synagogues. A distinct ‘Oriental’ aspect was needed in a house of Jewish worship because, he felt, the Jewish people’s origins were ultimately in the East. And yet Glass was not simply wedded to the past. He sought to interpret these characteristic features “into a strikingly individual ‘cinematic’ style that was on the way to Art Deco.” (S. Kadish, p. 187) – making the
Holland Road Synagogue the rich and lasting tribute to British-Jewish architecture that it is today.
by Dr Winston Pickett
Situated on the gradient cusp of Furze Hill in an otherwise residential section of Hove, the Holland Road Synagogue stands out for its curvaceous architectural design. Small wonder. When it was opened in 1930 following a ceremonious cornerstone-setting by Chief Rabbi Dr. Joseph Hertz only one year earlier, its up-and-coming, yet already accomplished architect Marcus Kenneth Glass had successfully converted a stodgy brick Victorian ladies’ gymnasium into a bright Art Deco-esque structure that architectural historians of the period would later refer to as ‘cinematic’.
Even today it stands out for its clean almost retro-modern design and is designated by Brighton and Hove Council as a Locally Listed Heritage Asset. Additionally the gold-standard architectural guide ‘Pevsner’ notes that the synagogue “displays an unusual architectural style, reminiscent of Viennese Jugendstil.”
Aesthetics aside, what distinguishes the Holland Road Synagogue even further is its history,
particularly within the corpus of the Jewish houses of worship constructed by its architect. For of all the synagogues built by the Newcastle-based Marcus Kenneth Glass, who died at the young age of 45 two years after completing Holland Road Shul, ours is his last synagogue both standing and in active use as a beit knesset.
In his native Newcastle Upon Tyne, Glass’s Edwardian Jesmond Synagogue, completed in 1914-15, was closed in 1986, converted into a high school and is now on the property market.
The Ryhope Road Synagogue in Sunderland, which Glass designed and was opened in 1928, displayed many of the architect’s trademark Orientalist, Byzantine features but was sold to a private businessman in 2006, who rented out its façade and gutted interior in 2013 for a grade B film production.
Finally, Glass’s Clapton Federation Synagogue in London (E5), which was opened in 1932 with many of the identical interior design features as Holland Road Synagogue, was “demolished by Jewish developers in 2006 in the face of attempts by local conservationists to get it Listed” (S. Kadish, p. 187).
Glass, whose work has gone under-appreciated probably due to his death at an early age, began his architectural career in 1914, having arrived in Newcastle as a toddler with his family from Riga, the capital of Lithuania, in the 1890s. Noteworthy for a first-generation Jewish émigré, Glass became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1925, having already made his mark with the design and construction of Jesmond Synagogue, whose distinctive features would be replicated in his three main works: solid corner towers, luchot (tablets of the 10 Commandments) above curved gables and starburst stained glass window, red and yellow brickwork ablaq, and a colourful mosaic band over the entrance porch – some of which can be found at Holland Road Synagogue, his first shul built in the South of England.
Glass’s interiors, the only living example of which can be found at Holland Road, were more evocative still: a painted and gilded plasterwork ark canopy featuring Byzantine & Islamic motifs; two chevron-patterned columns on either side of the aron kodesh, and an ornate, wood-carved pulpit made by craftsmen from Newcastle.
Glass deliberately chose Islamic and Byzantine motifs because he felt they were lacking from London synagogues. A distinct ‘Oriental’ aspect was needed in a house of Jewish worship because, he felt, the Jewish people’s origins were ultimately in the East. And yet Glass was not simply wedded to the past. He sought to interpret these characteristic features “into a strikingly individual ‘cinematic’ style that was on the way to Art Deco.” (S. Kadish, p. 187) – making the
Holland Road Synagogue the rich and lasting tribute to British-Jewish architecture that it is today.
