| Summary : Synagogue, later shopping arcade, now student accommodation. Opened in 1880 to the designs of John Johnstone, the building is constructed from sandstone ashlar with a rock-faced plinth and a Welsh slate roof. The design of the building is basically of a North Italian style consisting of a basement and two storeys in 1:3:1 bays; the central three under a gable. The outer entrance bays have end pilasters, double doors, and fanlights with circle glazing bars, between pink granite shafts under moulded round arches. To the first floor there are five arcaded windows. Pilasters flank the central three bays with the intersecting segmental arcade containing two side and four centre ground-floor windows; the upper windows are paired under round arches with the Star of David carved in tympana. The congregation moved to other premises during the 1970s and the building was put to use as a shopping arcade until a fire gutted the interior in 1990. Restoration was completed by 1996 and it is now used for student accommodation. |