History- an art deco style non traditional synagogue built in the mid 30s for a modern synagogue experience , it seats 700 , opened by lord cohen of birkenhead in 1937 , during ww2 it was used as an emergency shelter for liverpools bombed out residents , later on it was used as a social centre for american jewish servicemen from burtonwood airbase , brian epstein manager of the beatles was a member of the congregation , in may 1959 a burglar started a fire which destroyed the torah n other paperwork and part of the roof at a cost of £50.000 , another fire occurred in 1965 destroying 2 first floor offices , the building ceased active service in 2008 .
liverpool had a jewish population of 11,000 which has dropped to 3000 in the 21st century and still declining ! with europe becoming more secular , we are seeing more places of worship becoming empty as congregations mostly consisting of old people die off and are not replaced by the younger generation due to them not being as gullible to the fairystories of religion .
The visit - we found the place and gained access to the grounds over a waisthigh wall , after a quick scout around we found the old boiler house , we then carried on around through the heavy undergrowth until we reached an annex building , gaining entry was easy due to open access points made by local youths and kitchen windows being left open , once in the annex we had a few minutes taking photos and then realised our entry into the synagogue was barred by a steel door that must of been installed recently , on our way out we talked to a local groundsman who told us how nobody ever visited this place anymore and nobody actually cared about the building that was slowly decaying even though £70,000 had been spent on repairing a roof on an empty building by sefton council . (visited with cazel#HT )
liverpool had a jewish population of 11,000 which has dropped to 3000 in the 21st century and still declining ! with europe becoming more secular , we are seeing more places of worship becoming empty as congregations mostly consisting of old people die off and are not replaced by the younger generation due to them not being as gullible to the fairystories of religion .
The visit - we found the place and gained access to the grounds over a waisthigh wall , after a quick scout around we found the old boiler house , we then carried on around through the heavy undergrowth until we reached an annex building , gaining entry was easy due to open access points made by local youths and kitchen windows being left open , once in the annex we had a few minutes taking photos and then realised our entry into the synagogue was barred by a steel door that must of been installed recently , on our way out we talked to a local groundsman who told us how nobody ever visited this place anymore and nobody actually cared about the building that was slowly decaying even though £70,000 had been spent on repairing a roof on an empty building by sefton council . (visited with cazel#HT )