Bevis Marks Synagogue, in a courtyard off the street of the same name in the City of London, opened in 1701 and is the only synagogue in Europe to have held regular services continuously for more than three hundred years. It is currently closed to general visitors. Building work is under way to prepare a visitors centre, and the congregation's own update says the synagogue is open only for services on Tuesday mornings at 7.10am and on Shabbat, with a hope of reopening for visitors and tours before the end of 2026.
That is the first thing to know, because every guidebook and listing still describes weekday tours. They are not running. If you walk down Bevis Marks expecting to be shown round a candlelit seventeenth-century interior, you will find an archway, wrought-iron gates and a building site.
The rest of this page is what is behind those gates, why it matters, and what to do instead until the doors open again. Our guide to salt beef, bagels and Jewish London covers the food and the wider trail, and what to wear in London deals with the head-covering conventions that apply here.
Bevis Marks: the position in September 2026
- Where
- A courtyard off Bevis Marks, City of London, entered under a stone archway with iron gates
- Status
- Closed to general visitors during building work for a new visitors centre
- Open for
- Services only: Tuesday mornings at 07:10 and on Shabbat
- Reopening
- The congregation hopes to reopen for visitors and tours before the end of 2026, and says it will update its own page when it does
- Admission when it reopens
- Not published. Do not assume it is free, and do not assume the old weekday tour timetable returns unchanged
- Opened
- 1701. Grade I listed
- Nearest stations
- Aldgate (Circle, Metropolitan) and Liverpool Street, both about five minutes
Check the congregation's own page on the day you plan to go, not a listing site. The synagogue belongs to the S&P Sephardi Community, which publishes the closure notice on its Bevis Marks page and says that page will be updated when tours resume. Nothing else is authoritative, and a reopening announced for "before the end of 2026" is the kind of date that moves.
Why this building is not just old
Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 and were readmitted in the 1650s. The Sephardi community that established itself in the City built this synagogue within fifty years of that readmission, and the Hebrew inscription cut above the entrance reads Kahal Kadosh Shaar Asamaim, which the congregation translates as "Holy Congregation The Gates of Heaven" - an expression, it says, of gratitude for the safe refuge the first Sephardim felt they had found here.
Plans were made in 1695 and the contract went to Joseph Avis, a Quaker, at a cost of £2,650. Two stories attach to the building. One is that Queen Anne gave an oak beam from a Royal Navy ship for the roof. The other is that Avis handed back the profit he had made, saying he would not take money from building a House of God. The congregation is careful to say it cannot prove either, but notes that both record a debt to two very unlike sets of friends: the Puritans and the House of Stuart.
The courtyard it stands in was once occupied by the congregation's school, almshouse and orphanage. Office towers surround it now, which is exactly why the courtyard still works: you step through an archway off a City street and the noise stops.
What is inside, for when you can get in
The interior has barely changed in three hundred years, and it is full of number symbolism that is easy to miss unless you are told.
- Seven hanging candelabra for the seven days of the week. The largest, in the centre, stands for the Sabbath and was given by the Sephardi congregation in Amsterdam, whose own synagogue had opened twenty-six years earlier and which this building plainly follows.
- Ten brass candlesticks - six in front of the Ark and four on the reading desk - for the Ten Commandments.
- Twelve pillars holding up the Ladies' Gallery, for the twelve tribes of Israel.
- The Ark, which looks startlingly like an altar screen in an Anglican church. It is classical in style, thought to have been influenced by Wren, who was rebuilding the City at the time; its oak doors are grained to imitate mahogany and the inside is lined with Spanish gilded leather.
- The back benches, backless oak, which came from the congregation's earlier synagogue in Creechurch Lane. The school children sat on them to the right of the Wardens' pew and the orphanage boys to the left.
The original iron locks, with their very large keys, are still in use on the timber doors, and the stone portal is inscribed A.M. 5461 - the Hebrew year in which the building went up. The rounded leaded windows deliberately echo the Non-conformist chapels of the same period, because that was the architectural language available to a congregation that was tolerated rather than established.
Additions since have been small: doors to the rabbis' seats and the Wardens' box in 1787, a special seat with arms and a footrest for Sir Moses Montefiore, choir stalls in 1830, and electric light in 1929. The candles are still lit, which is the point most photographs are trying to make.
The two bombs, and the Gherkin
The synagogue came through both world wars unscathed and was then badly damaged twice in two years. The IRA bomb of 1992 was aimed at the Baltic Exchange and wrecked the surrounding streets; the synagogue needed an entirely new ceiling, new joists and new floorboards, and the repair programme ran for more than four months. A second bomb the following year did further, lesser damage.
The repairs went beyond what insurance covered, so the Bevis Marks Trust was set up and drew donations from the City of London Corporation and from private individuals; the work was completed and marked with a service in October 1993. The site of the Baltic Exchange is now occupied by the Gherkin, which is about two minutes' walk from the synagogue gates. The relationship between the two buildings is the shortest lesson in modern City history available anywhere.
The Cathedral Synagogue
Few Jewish families live in this part of London now; the migration north and west began in the nineteenth century. What remained was a ceremonial role. Bevis Marks came to be known as the Cathedral Synagogue and is used for services that matter to Anglo-Jewry as a whole: the 250th anniversary in 1951 was attended by the Duke of Edinburgh, the 300th on 5 December 2001 by the then Prince of Wales, and the 350th anniversary of the Resettlement in 2006 by Tony Blair. Civic services are held here too, including one after the City marked the 800th anniversary of its mayoralty in 1989, and services to mark the appointment of Jewish Lord Mayors and the installation of Masters of livery companies.
That is the context for the building work. A congregation that is small in numbers and large in significance is building a visitors centre, which suggests the reopened arrangement will be more organised than the old ad hoc tour and may well be ticketed.
What to do instead until it reopens
Nothing else in London is Bevis Marks, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But there are three honest substitutes within walking distance or a short ride.
| Instead | Why | Practicalities |
|---|---|---|
| Sandys Row Synagogue, Spitalfields | The oldest Ashkenazi synagogue still in use in London, ten minutes' walk north | Its own website was not reachable when we checked in September 2026, so telephone or ask locally rather than relying on the internet |
| The City churches | Several are free, open on weekdays and almost empty, including two with Roman floors | See our guide to All Hallows and the City churches |
| Open House Festival, September | Buildings normally shut open free for one weekend, and places of worship are well represented | See the Open House Festival |
Two other working places of worship in London do welcome visitors and publish how to arrange it: the London Central Mosque beside Regent's Park, and the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir at Neasden. For a large, free, always-open interior in the same architectural league, the Brompton Oratory is the one we would send you to.
What to wear and how to behave when tours resume
The conventions at Bevis Marks are those of an Orthodox Sephardi synagogue, and they are not onerous. Men are expected to cover their heads inside; head coverings are normally provided at the door, so you do not need to bring one. Dress as you would for a formal building, with shoulders covered. Men and women sit separately at services, with women in the gallery.
If you attend one of the services that are running - Tuesday at 7.10am, or on Shabbat - remember that you are a guest at worship rather than a visitor to a monument. Arrive before the start, sit where you are shown, follow what the congregation does or simply remain seated, and do not take photographs. On Shabbat, using a phone or camera inside is not acceptable at all, and it is better to leave it switched off in a pocket than to risk it. Our guide to dress codes in London, linked above, sets out the wider pattern for mosques, synagogues and gurdwaras.
Getting there, and what is around it
Aldgate, on the Circle and Metropolitan lines, and Liverpool Street are both about five minutes away, and the synagogue is on the eastern edge of the Square Mile where the City meets Spitalfields. Our guide to the City of London explains how empty this district is at the weekend, which matters here because Shabbat is a Saturday.
Leadenhall Market is five minutes south-west, Petticoat Lane and the City fringe markets a few minutes north-east, and Old Spitalfields and Brick Lane ten minutes beyond that. Whitechapel and the East End covers the district the community later moved through. If you are assembling a day of free things, our list of free things to do in London has the alternatives while this one is shut.
Frequently asked questions
Can you visit Bevis Marks Synagogue?
Not at the moment. The congregation's own update says the synagogue is closed to general visitors during building work to prepare a visitors centre, and that it is open only for services on Tuesday mornings at 7.10am and on Shabbat. It hopes to reopen for visitors and tours before the end of 2026 and will say so on its own Bevis Marks page.
Is Bevis Marks the oldest synagogue in Britain?
It is the oldest still in use. It opened in 1701 and the congregation describes it as the only synagogue in Europe to have held regular services continuously for over three hundred years. Sandys Row in Spitalfields is the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue still in use in London.
Does it still use candles?
Yes. Electric light was installed in 1929, but the seven hanging candelabra and the ten brass candlesticks are still lit, which is why the interior appears in photographs as a candlelit room rather than an electrically lit one.
What should men wear inside?
Men cover their heads inside, and head coverings are normally provided, so you do not need to bring one. Dress as you would for any formal building. Men and women sit separately at services, with women in the gallery.
Which station is nearest?
Aldgate, on the Circle and Metropolitan lines, or Liverpool Street; both are about five minutes' walk. The synagogue is in a courtyard entered under a stone archway, so it is easy to walk past the entrance without noticing it.
Sources
- S&P Sephardi Community - Bevis Marks: closure notice and service times (read via the Internet Archive copy of 24 September 2026, because the live site blocks automated access; checked September 2026)
- S&P Sephardi Community - Bevis Marks: History and Design (Internet Archive copy of 28 November 2025)
- Open City - Open House Festival (buildings that open only for the festival) (checked September 2026)