Retirement flat plan for synagogue
PART OF SITE TO BE SOLD
RETIREMENT flats are likely to be built on the site of Newcastle’s largest synagogue after a dwindling congregation sparked downsizing plans.
The city’s United Hebrew Congregation has a struck a deal with developers McCarthy and Stone to sell the majority of its site on the corner of Graham Park Road and Gosforth High Street.
The synagogue was built in 1986 to hold congregations of around 300 but is now attracting only around 50 worshippers to typical services.
As a result, the Hebrew Congregation is planning to convert an old house on the site into a new synagogue and sell the rest of the plot to McCarthy and Stone, the UK’s leading developer of retirement homes.
McCarthy and Stone is planning to begin consultations with people in the Gosforth area over its plans in the next few weeks. The company is planning to demolish the modern buildings on the site but a lodge house will be maintained to become part of the retirement village. The development – on a road that is frequently highlighted as one of the most expensive in the North East – comes shortly after McCarthy and Stone completed work on turning the listed former Kenton Lodge on nearby Kenton Road into a retirement complex.
A company spokesman said: “We’re hoping to make a planning application in the next few months but we will be consulting with the local population extensively before we do that.” Newcastle’s United Hebrew Congregation was formed in 1973 as a result of the amalgamation of The Old Hebrew Congregation, The Jesmond Congregation, and The Gosforth & Kenton Congregation.
We’re a much smaller congregation than we used to be Anthony Josephs
It opened the Gosforth synagogue in 1986, with the large plot containing a synagogue, a mikvah (ritual bath) and a function hall.
Anthony Josephs, of the United Hebrew Congregation, said: “We’re proposing to sell the synagogue and move into the old house again. The house is the communal hub and we want to make one of the rooms in that into our synagogue.
“We’re a much smaller congregation than we used to be. Our children are going away to university and many of them don’t come back so the smaller room should be adequate for our needs.”