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Bevis Marks Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Review

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Bevis Marks Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue

Address: Bevis Marks, 2 Henage La., East End, London, EC3A 5DG | Map It
Phone: 020/7626-1274

Category: Religious Sites
Location: East End

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Fodor's Review:

Named after the street on which it stands, this is London's oldest and most splendid synagogue. It's beautiful, embellished with rich woodwork for the benches and galleries, marble columns, and many plunging brass chandeliers. The wooden ark resembles a Wren-style screen and contains the sacred scrolls of the five books of Moses. When Cromwell allowed the Jews to return to England in 1655 (they had been expelled in 1290), there was no Jewish community, and certainly no place to worship openly. The site chosen to build a new synagogue in 1701 already had religious connections, as the house that stood here before, Burics Marks, was owned by the abbot of Bury St. Edmunds; over the years the name re-evolved.

Open: Mon.-Wed., Fri., and Sat. 11-1, Sun. 11-12:30
Tube: Aldgate East, Liverpool St.

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