Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue

The Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation of London was founded in 1657 following a petition by Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel of Amsterdam to Oliver Cromwell from six Jews living in London who sought permission to worship freely and to acquire land for a cemetery. Cromwell provided a verbal guarantee and it was the first time that Jews were able to profess their faith openly since their 1290 expulsion by Edward I.

The Lauderdale Road Synagogue opened in 1896. The synagogue building was constructed in the Byzantine Revival style by architects Davis & Emanuel. Its interiors reflect the success of its membership in the late nineteenth century in global commerce across the British Empire and beyond. It has a large domed ceiling, grand stained glass windows set in arched recesses, tapestry carpets across the polished wooden floors, as well as a large ark. The nineteenth century history of Lauderdale Road is wrapped up with the Sephardi families of what the chronicler of Jewish life in Britain Chaim Bermant called "the Cousinhood" or the Victorian Anglo-Jewish gentry. Many of the most esteemed families of…