[4][5] No architect's name is recorded, and it is assumed that the rectangular, pitched-roof structure was designed and erected by a local master builder.

The building is tucked on a side-street, Sharman Kadish, the leading expert on Jewish buildings in Britain, believes that an unobtrusive location was chosen to avoid provoking the destructive riots that non-Anglican houses of worship often provoked in the eighteenth century.

The cornerstone of the adjacent three-storey building housing various synagogue offices is dated with the Jewish year 5634 (1874).

The vestibule is floored with Minton terracotta tile dating from a Victorian era renovation, the present stairs to the women's galleries were built at the same time.

Kadish believes that putting synagogue windows on a public street may have been judged unwise in the religious climate of the eighteenth century.

It features fluted Corinthian columns, a broken pediment, carved finials and urns in gold leaf.

On the second storey are a pair of tablets of the Ten Commandments, in gold leaf on a royal blue ground.

In 2002, the Ark was restored with gold leaf, white and blue paint, which stands in sharp contract to the plain wood of the rest of the building.