Plans to build two skyscrapers near a historic synagogue in London are sparking controversy and pushback from the U.K.’s Jewish community. The buildings would block the natural light that illuminates the sacred space and contributes to its ambience.

The first planned tower — a 48-story building south of Bevis Marks Synagogue on Bury Street — was rejected last month by the London city planning committee. Bevis Marks is the oldest Jewish house of worship in the U.K. and dates back to 1701.

Another planned tower, if built, would reach 21 stories and overshadow the landmark Jewish congregation with Spanish and Portuguese origins.

“The special status of Bevis Marks has been recognised by the Planning Committee and common sense has prevailed,” Dame Helen Hyde, chair of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, said in a statement. “We hope the committee will make the same decision with the second application which is equally unacceptable.” 

Bevis Marks — a Grade I historic site in Britain and the only synagogue in Europe that has held regular services continuously for more than 300 years — continues to serve the Sephardi descendants of the persecuted Portuguese and Spanish Jews who found refuge in England following the rise to power of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). In 1656, Cromwell welcomed Jews back to the country from which they were expelled by King Edward I in 1290.

Apart from being retrofitted with electric lighting in 1929, Bevis Marks is largely unchanged from three centuries ago. It continues to be lit by 240 candles in massive brass chandeliers, making the issue of blocking natural light especially sensitive. In its design and decoration, the building was heavily influenced by Amsterdam’s Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, which had opened 26 years earlier.

The rejected 197-meter (646-foot) skyscraper would have entailed the demolition of an existing building and construction of a new building that would have had 48 stories of office use — or 49 including the ground floor — flexible retail and cafe use, amenity and community space, a new pedestrian route, basement parking and more, according to the London-based architectural blog Dezeen.

Critics have protested that if the two planned high-rises were built in the dense urban location in London — next to a key transit junction planned to open in 2022 — the towers and nearby buildings would block sunlight to the synagogue for all but one hour a day. The shadow would affect religious observance and the synagogue’s role as a tourist attraction, critics argue.   

Speaking to the committee in October about the planned 48-story tower, Bevis Marks’ Rabbi Shalom Morris said the high-rise would “diminish the spiritually uplifting and practically necessary light that filters into the synagogue.”

The committee meeting in October also heard objections from Sarah Sackman, a planning lawyer and member of the synagogue.

“Bevis Marks is where I got married,” Sackman said. “I speak alongside thousands of British Jews who are concerned about this application. The true extent of the harm to Bevis Marks is being missed. Considered both individually and cumulatively, the impact of this scheme is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.” 

Among the 1,800 comments submitted about the Bury Street plan were concerns the excavation could cause structural damage to the historic building.

Protesters — including Sir Simon Schama, a historian — lent their voices to the campaign, asking, “High-rise office buildings would never be considered four miles away from St. Paul’s Cathedral, so why should it be acceptable here?”

U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl, also voiced their objections to the project. The Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America wrote to the British ambassador in Washington, Dame Karen Pierce, calling the proposed building “a shocking disregard for the needs and historic rights of the Sephardic Jewish community.”

Britain’s heir to the throne, Prince Charles, also supported the campaign to cancel the tower.

In 2019, the synagogue received a £2.8 million grant from the U.K.’s National Heritage Lottery Fund for “vital restoration work and conservation for its collections,” allowing them to be displayed in a new section of the synagogue complex. In February 2021, Bevis Marks received £497,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to kick-start the renovation and other work that had been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The work is being overseen by the Bevis Marks Synagogue Heritage Foundation, which was established in 2019 with Prince Charles as its patron. 

Though Bevis Marks was unscathed by World War I and the Luftwaffe’s 1940-1941 blitz — which pulverized the nearby East End, where many London Jews lived at the time — in 1992, the building was severely damaged by an IRA bomb targeting the nearby Baltic Exchange, which caused vast damage to the surrounding historic financial district. The restored synagogue was damaged by a second IRA bomb in 1993.

The Baltic Exchange was demolished and replaced by the Gherkin skyscraper, designed by Foster and Partners, which won the Stirling Prize for architecture. Recently, a plan for the London Tulip tower adjoining the Gherkin was also rejected. The 305-meter (1,000-foot) stem tower — capped by a futuristic viewing platform — at 20 Bury Street was initially approved by the city of London but later rejected by Mayor Sadiq Khan.  

One concern was that the viewing platform would come to be blocked in the not-so-distant future by even taller buildings.

Gil Zohar was born in Toronto, Canada, and moved to Jerusalem, Israel, in 1982. He is a journalist writing for The Jerusalem Post, Segula magazine, Religion Unplugged and other publications. He’s also a professional tour guide who likes to weave together the Holy Land’s multiple narratives. He may be reached at GilZohar@rogers.com.