NEWS: An update on one of the cases from our 2015 Risk List, the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation Synagogue at Greenbank Drive, Merseyside. Built in 1936-37, architect Sir Ernest Alfred Shennan derived his distinctive language for the synagogue from the Swedish National Romantic style along with Art Deco components. It features a highly unusual reinforced concrete canopied clerestory and a cantilevered segmental curved ladies' gallery, with the materials and craftsmanship employed throughout the building are of the highest quality. Greenbank Drive closed in 2008 due to the declining Jewish community in the Sefton Park area and a dwindling congregation. The building was upgraded from Grade II to II* listing following an appeal to Historic England to C20 Society, where we argued that it is perhaps the finest surviving synagogue in Europe dating from the Interwar period. A plan to convert the former synagogue into 22 apartments with a further 30 flats in its 1.1-acre grounds was approved in 2017, with 20 pre-commencement conditions. However, no works ever began on site and the planning permission is presumed to since have lapsed. Repeated break-ins and vandalism were reported in the local press in September 2026, shortly after which it appeared on a commercial auction site with a guide price of £2,000,000 and marketed as a 'development opportunity'. Though the proposed conversion is potentially reversible, the Society remains extremely concerned at the potential loss of original features and the infilling of the main prayer hall, believing that I would be far better suited as a place of worship by another faith group, a home for a community organisation, or a performance venue. Images (c) Jacob Kelly