Princes Road Synagogue

Princes Road Synagogue, located in Toxteth, Liverpool in England, is the home of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation. It was founded in the late 1860s, designed by William James Audsley and George Ashdown Audsley and consecrated on 2 September 1874. It is widely regarded as the finest example of the Moorish Revival style of synagogue architecture in Great Britain. Princes Road Synagogue came into existence when the Jewish community in Liverpool in the late 1860s decided to build itself a new synagogue, reflecting the status and wealth of the community. The Toxteth area was rapidly expanding as Liverpool’s magnates built opulent mansions. The synagogue stands in a cluster of houses of worship designed to advertise the wealth and status of the local captains of industry, a group that was remarkably ethnically diverse, by the standards of Victorian England. Immediately adjacent to Princes Road are the magnificent Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, the Anglican parish of St Margaret of Antioch, and a handsome, early French gothic, Welsh Presbyterian Church.Synagogues emulating its design are to be found as far afield as Sydney.