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City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
There really isn’t just one London. There are many. This
tour tells the story of the long Jewish presence in London:
sometimes heart breaking, sometimes heart warming and
always fascinating. From the Square Mile to the narrow
streets of the old Jewish East End and with visits to the
oldest and most splendid synagogue in England and the
Jewish Museum in Camden plus time for a lunchtime
mooch around the stalls of Spitalfields Market this is a
richly satisfying day out for your members - Jewish or not.
We have now cut the walking content on the morning
of this tour by just under a third
to make it suitable for
more people because it is such a good day. If you have one
or two that rest heavily on sticks they might want to bring
a wheelchair -I know that not everyone likes to give into
the idea of a chair but it could certainly make them more
comfortable. However during the morning, roughly half
way through the total distance we stop to visit the Bevis
Marks Synagogue where everyone can sit down to listen.
The Jewish London Tour
Please meet our Jewish London Blue Badge guide at
10.30/10.45am at Aldgate to begin the day with time to
buy morning refreshments. Jewish people first came to
London during Roman times 2000 years ago and have
been instrumental in the history of the capital ever since.
We are on foot this morning to get to the very heart of the
story of Jewish London - along the way you will be able
to sit down when we stop at England’s oldest synagogue
built when Sir Christopher Wren was building his
churches nearby. The Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue
on the street called Bevis Marks however had to be built
inside a courtyard as in 1701 synagogues were not
permitted on public streets.
From outside, if it was not for the Hebrew lettering above
the door, this could easily be a Wren church and it takes
a moment as you step inside to separate church and
synagogue in your mind - it seems to owe so much to
the classical vernacular of the Wren church. Surely there
at the east end is a Wren reredos? It could be straight from
the Wren churches of St Vedast Foster Lane or St Mary
Abchurch. But no this is not a reredos but the three-
paneled Ark containing the Torah scrolls surmounted by
a painted wooden representation of the tablets of the law
written in Hebrew characters. Above us seven brass
candelabra represent the seven days of the week - the
largest in the centre representing the Sabbath: they are
still lit for weddings and the Jewish festivals. The dark
wood pews face each other collegiate style like the choir
of St Brides, Fleet Street but there are two aisles for the
procession of the Torah scrolls from the Ark to the
Reading Desk.
Now with a
third less
walking