Abandoned Synagogue

Dundee’s former synagogue, also known as the Dundee Hebrew Centre, occupies a small corner of land close to the junction between Lochee Road and Dudhope Terrace, and, sitting amid trees in the shadow of Dudhope Court multi-storey, the city’s first high rise, passes almost unseen.

It was built in 1978 and is considered to be a rare example of experimentation in post-war synagogue architecture. It was designed by Ian Imlach, a London-born architect and lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, until his retiral in 1995.

With a presence in the city dating back to the mid-19th century when fabric merchants from Hamburg first visited the city, the Dundee Hebrew Congregation was formerly established in 1878. The first synagogue opened in Murraygate in that year and it moved to Meadow Street in 1920. The redevelopment of Meadow Street in the 1970s saw the building demolished and land was found for a new synagogue in St Mary’s Place.

Accessed by a set of steps rising from St Mary’s Place, the building is compact and single-storey with white render walls and sections of sloping and flat roof with skylights. The heavy metal gate on the front porch, which remains, was adorned with a golden Star of David but it has since been removed. Windows are generally small and covered with mesh. Two long slender windows, one on the south side of the building, the other on the north, have blue panes of glass.

While the grounds are a bit overgrown and some of the walls have graffiti daubed on them, the building is generally sound and secure. Internally, however, it has suffered from neglect and water damage.

The city’s declining Jewish popuation resulted in the church being abandoned in June 2019 and members living across Tayside and Fife now meet in St Andrews.