Bevis Marks Synagogue

An article in The New York Times interviews Rabbi Shalom Morris, who has overseen the oldest synagogue in Britain, the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London, for six years. The 320-year-old Bevis Marks Synagogue claims that two new proposed office towers would block its sunlight and add to the sense of enclosure amid the skyscrapers of the financial district.

“Religious buildings need to be treated with particular care,” said Stephen Graham, a professor of cities and society at Newcastle University. “Light is an essential part of the spiritual experience. It’s unthinkable that a cathedral would be confronted with this kind of challenge, so why should a synagogue?”

Professor Graham, whose book “Vertical” explores the impulse to build upward, said the pressure to approve towers in London would persist because of the misbegotten belief that “to be a global city, you have to have a New York-style skyline.” In this case, he said, it has led to a fascination with “toylike, identifiable towers” that stand in stark contrast to the classic, Wren-like aesthetic of the Bevis Marks synagogue.

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