Bevis Marks Synagogue: London's Oldest and Britain's Treasure

In the Shadow of the City

In a courtyard just off a busy street in London’s financial district, partially hidden by modern office towers, stands a building that has been a place of Jewish worship since Queen Anne sat on the throne. Bevis Marks Synagogue, completed in 1701, is the oldest synagogue in Britain still in continuous use — and one of the finest surviving examples of early modern Sephardi synagogue architecture anywhere in the world.

Return to England

The story of Bevis Marks begins with exile and return. In 1290, King Edward I expelled all Jews from England — the first such national expulsion in medieval Europe. For over three and a half centuries, there was no openly Jewish community in England.

In the 1650s, during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, a small group of Sephardi merchants from Amsterdam and the Iberian Peninsula petitioned for the right to live and worship openly in England. Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam traveled to London to make the case. Cromwell, motivated by a combination of theological sympathy and commercial pragmatism, informally permitted Jews to return, though no formal edict of readmission was ever issued.

The first returning Jews were Sephardi — Portuguese and Spanish Jews who had lived as conversos (outwardly Christian, secretly Jewish) in Iberia before finding refuge in Amsterdam. They established a small synagogue in Creechurch Lane in 1657.

Building Bevis Marks

By the 1690s, the community had outgrown its original premises. Joseph Avis, a Quaker carpenter, was hired to design and build a new synagogue. According to tradition, Avis returned part of his fee, saying he would not profit from building a house of God.

The building was modeled on the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, though on a smaller scale. The Amsterdam community donated a large roof beam as a symbol of connection between the two congregations.

Interior and Traditions

The interior is warm and intimate. Oak-paneled walls, twelve columns representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and seven hanging brass chandeliers — one for each day of creation — define the space. Like its Amsterdam counterpart, Bevis Marks was originally lit entirely by candles, and candles still supplement modern lighting during services.

The building has a Queen Anne connection: the queen reportedly donated one of the oak beams used in the construction, a gesture of royal goodwill toward the new congregation. This detail reflects the relatively tolerant atmosphere of early eighteenth-century England.

Services follow the Sephardi rite — the Portuguese minhag — with distinctive melodies and liturgical customs that differ from the Ashkenazi tradition that later became dominant in Britain as waves of Eastern European Jews arrived.

Through the Centuries

Bevis Marks has witnessed the entire arc of British Jewish history. It was here that the community that would produce Benjamin Disraeli (whose family were members before converting to Christianity) worshipped. It survived the Blitz during World War II, when German bombs damaged the surrounding area but left the synagogue standing.

In recent decades, the building has faced a different kind of threat: the relentless development of the City of London. Towering office buildings have encroached on the synagogue’s courtyard, and the congregation has fought to preserve its light and setting against the pressures of commercial construction.

The Synagogue Today

Today Bevis Marks serves a dual role. It remains the spiritual home of the S&P (Spanish and Portuguese) Sephardi Community, holding regular services. It is also a heritage site, welcoming visitors who want to see a rare survivor from an era when English Jewry was beginning anew.

Standing inside Bevis Marks, surrounded by candlelight and three centuries of history, one can feel the weight of that continuity — the same prayers, the same melodies, the same orientation toward Jerusalem, maintained in this small London courtyard since the very first years of the eighteenth century.