 There they were seated on elegant Egyptian revival chairs as they watched the religious service.The synagogue was also visited around this period, during his schooldays, by the writer Leigh Hunt, who wrote 'I took pleasure in witnessing the semi-Catholic pomp of their service and in hearing their fine singing, not without something of a constant astonishment at their wearing their hats'.The synagogue was destroyed during the night of May 10/11, 1941, during one of the last major attacks of the Blitz.