Jewish communities have been continuously resident in London since their re-admission to England under Oliver Cromwell. The first new synagogues to be built in London in the seventeenth century were based in the eastern part of the City of London, and the focus of Jewish settlement remained in the City and the East End until the mid-twentieth century.
The first community to build in London were Sephardi Jews from Spain and Portugal, who built a small synagogue in Creechurch Lane in the City in 1657. This was replaced by a new synagogue in Bevis Marks in 1701, which is still the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the country. Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe built their first synagogue, the Great Synagogue, in Duke’s Place, City of London in 1690.
Once the communities were established, other institutions arose in the neighbourhood to cater for the specific needs of the Jewish population. These included schools for religious education and for general education, including the Jews Free School in Spitalfields. In the years after 1881 the Jewish population of the East End of London expanded considerably as refugees from Eastern Europe arrived in their thousands. Newly-formed charities aiming to help the new arrivals included the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor in Spitalfields and the Jewish Workhouse in Stepney Green. The latter later became a founding organisation of Nightingale, the Home for Aged Jews. The Jewish Hospital was also based in Stepney Green. The Jews’ Temporary Shelter in Mansell Street, Aldgate, gave immigrants a bed for a few nights and provided help and advice for those planning to move on from London.
The Jewish population began to move away from the East End to the leafy suburbs of north-west London during the second half of the twentieth century.