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The Seymour Place Methodist Church, Bryanstone Square, Marylebone, was originally part of the Primitive Methodist Connexion and belonged to their London Ninth Circuit. It subsequently joined the Wesleyan Methodist West London Mission, possibly after 1932 when the Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists merged. It is now used as the West London Day Centre for homeless people which is run from the Mission headquarters at Thayer Street.

The Warwick Gardens Methodist Chapel was built in 1863 to designs by Lockwood and Mawson and demolished in about 1927. It represented a movement by local Wesleyans to broaden their scope and, in William Pepperell's words, 'plant chapels in more respectable localities, such as that of Warwick-gardens'.

The initiative came from the Bayswater Circuit of the Methodist Conference, to which the chapel was formally attached. It appears that there was a competition for the building, probably in mid 1862. The foundation stone for Lockwood and Mawson's chapel was laid in May 1863. The prominent site, at the south corner of Pembroke Gardens and Warwick Crescent (now Gardens), was taken from Lord Kensington on a long lease. The exterior, Geometric in style, was of red brick with black bands and Bath stone dressings, and had aisles, a high roof, and a slim tower and spire in the south-west position. Inside was a timber arcade and the usual array of galleries, while in a semi-basement were schoolrooms 'and a residence for the chapel-keeper'.

The finished chapel, opened on 10 December 1863, contained some 1,100 sittings. But Pepperell reported in 1871 that an average congregation amounted to some 200 only, and 'a number of these are from a distance, and properly belonging to other Methodist congregations'. The Reverend C. Maurice Davies, visiting a few years later, offered a livelier impression. 'There was generally a shiny look about the chapel, as though everything, including the congregation, had been newly varnished. The seats were low, the galleries retiring, and everything in the most correct ecclesiastical taste. The position of the pulpit was strange to me; and the addition of a table covered with red baize surmounted by a small white marble font with a chamber towel ready for use, did not diminish the peculiarity. . . . The pulpit had succeeded in attaining the "Eastward position", but the table at its base did very well for a quasi-altar, and was flanked, north and south, by two semi-ecclesiastical hall chairs of oak. The font was locomotive, and might be supposed to occupy its abnormal position under protest.'

Pepperell's forebodings may have been accurate, for the chapel never attained much prosperity or influence. In about 1925 it was closed, its site sold to the Prudential Assurance Company, and shortly afterwards houses were built upon the site.

From: 'Churches and chapels: Non-Anglican denominations', Survey of London: volume 42: Kensington Square to Earl's Court (1986), pp. 386-394.

A Methodist circuit is normally a group of churches in a local area served by a team of ministers. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the circuit, along with local preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan. The Methodist Church in Britain is arranged into over 600 Circuits, which in turn are grouped into 32 Districts covering Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Each District is supervised by a District Synod.

The London Mission East Circuit is part of the London North East District of the Methodist Church.

Chequer Alley (now Chequer Street) runs between Bunhill Row and Whitecross Street in Islington, near City Road. In the 1840s it was a socially deprived area, home to around 15,000 people living in poverty. In 1841 a Methodist, Miss Macarthy, from the nearby City Road Church began to visit the Alley and hand out Methodist tracts. Interest in her work increased to the point where she was able to begin Sunday preaching in a small hired room. These services eventually expanded to include a Sunday School, Day School, and classes for adults wishing to join the church.

Weymouth Terrace British School, Hackney Road, was in the First London Methodist Circuit circa 1864. British Schools were run using the "Lancasterian Monitorial System of Education", which was developed by Quaker John Lancaster in 1798. The system allowed huge numbers of pupils to be educated under one school-master by using able pupils as monitors assisting the others and was intended to provide a basic education for poor children. The "Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor" was founded in 1808 and had the support of many non-conformists. The Society changed its name to the "British and Foreign Schools Society" in 1814 and founded many 'British Schools' which were often attached to non-conformist churches.

A Methodist circuit is normally a group of churches in a local area served by a team of ministers. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the circuit, along with local preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan.

The Methodist Church in Britain is arranged into over 600 Circuits, which in turn are grouped into 32 Districts covering Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Each District is supervised by a District Synod.

The Queen Victoria Seamen's Rest (QVSR) started life as the Wesleyan Seamen's Mission of the Methodist Church in 1843. The aim was to minister to the spiritual needs and promote the social and morale welfare of seafarers and their families in the vicinity of the Port of London.

Over time a need arose for a meeting place of some kind in the new sailor town that had sprung up at Poplar. Right opposite the 'seamen's entrance' of the local Board of Trade Office on the East India Dock Road in Jeremiah Street stood a small public house called The Magnet. In 1887, the license of The Magnet was withdrawn, providing the Mission an opportunity to rent the public house and it was transformed into a Seamen's Rest.

Gradually the sphere of the Mission 's operation extended from London Bridge to Tilbury and embraced the river, docks and wharfs, as well as the on-shore haunts of sailors and hospitals, so that by the end of the century it was evident that the old 'Magnet' premises were inadequate. The freehold of No 1 Jeremiah Street and its adjoining properties was purchased in 1899; the whole site was cleared and a new Seamen's Home and Institute built. The foundation stone was laid on the 17th December 1901 by the Lord Mayor of London, and King Edward VII gave his royal consent for the new Seamen's Rest to bear his mother's name, "Queen Victoria ".

The Seamen's Hospital Society 'Dreadnought' rented a portion of the building to use as a sailor's dispensary clinic providing free medical treatment on the premises. In addition free banking was available and a lawyer held an advice surgery once a week. The Association with Seamen's Homes Beyond the Seas had been inaugurated and men from the Mission were introduced to similar institutions in foreign ports. As the work of the mission prospered a resolution was made to extend the building by another storey to increase the number of beds from 25 to 60.

In order to function effectively, QVSR needed a separate hall for public worship and meetings. The Emery Hall was opened on December 5th 1907 by the Patron, HRH Princess Louise. In the First World War, 20,000 unarmed Merchant Seamen lost their lives and the Mission began an appeal to raise funds for a War Memorial Wing with room for another 100 beds. On 20th October 1932 , Prince George (later Duke of Kent) performed the opening ceremony. The extension comprised three stories of private cubicles, 66 in all, a lounge and the New Agar Hall. Each cubicle was plainly furnished with an iron bedstead, dressing table, wooden chair, rug and electric light.

On June 21st 1944 a V1 Flying-bomb fell in Jeremiah Street and the whole of the staff quarters were destroyed. Mercifully, there was no loss of life. Disaster struck again on August 3rd when another bomb displaced the temporary repairs and added further damage, but restoration was done by the seamen lodgers and it was a source of pride that the Rest never closed.

With the war over, plans for the centenary extension of another 60 bedrooms and other sundry communal rooms resumed. The new development was in two parts, one each end of the building. The North Block included an officers' lounge and billiard room together with a chapel, library and 35 bedrooms for officers. The South Block provided not only a common room and rest rooms, two cafes and new bedrooms for ratings, but also a spacious entrance hall with an imposing entrance onto the main road. This necessitated a change of postal address from Jeremiah Street to 121-131 East India Dock Road.

Over the next thirty years, the "Queen Vic" had to adjust itself in line with the re-development of the East End Dockland area and the modernisation of the shipping industry. In order to maintain financial efficiency, space was made to allow a number of retired seamen a more permanent home at QVSR whilst also providing a home for men who had nowhere else to turn. In recent times there has been an increased use of the London River, from Barking Creek to Silvertown, which has re-kindled the need to provide a service that supports the welfare of active seafarers using the Port of London .

Source: http://www.qvsr.org.uk/history.htm.

In Northwood, Hillingdon, Primitive Methodists first met in a house called 'Elthorne' from about 1896. In that year a school chapel was built on the corner of the High Street and Hallowell Road. The present church next to the school chapel was completed in 1903, with further extensions made in 1910 and 1927. Enemy action caused considerable damage to the building in 1944.

Methodists were the largest non-established denomination in the Harrow and Wembley area, with the first of many chapels in this area erected in 1810. Several churches were built in the 1920s including the chapel on Park Lane, Wembley, which was first called the Wesleyan Church. From 20 September 1932 (when the different branches of Methodism united) the name was changed to the Methodist Church. It was closed in 1961.

John and Charles Wesley preached in Hayes church on at least ten occasions between 1748 and 1753. By 1816 the Methodists had erected a chapel in Hayes, but nothing else is known of the Methodist congregation in Hayes until 1906, when the Hayes Tabernacle at Wood End Green was registered by Wesleyan Methodists. Hayes Methodist Church began in Station Road, in 1907. It was registered at that address in 1927. In 1930 the registered name was changed to Queen's Hall Methodist Church, Station Road. In 1973 Queen's Hall closed and work began on a new church, which opened in September 1977, and was renamed Hayes Methodist Church.

John Wesley preached in Hillingdon and Uxbridge in 1754 and 1758, but there is no other evidence of 18th-century Methodist activity. By 1851, however, there were five Methodist meetings in Hillingdon. The Methodist Central Hall was erected in 1930 at the junction of High Street and Park Road. In 1957 Lawn Road Primitive Methodist congregation was amalgamated with that of Central Hall. The Central Hall was renovated and extended in 1959 to meet the increased demand.

Mattison Road church, later renamed Harringay church, opened in 1891 as an iron tabernacle (a pre-fabricated timber framed structure clad with corrugated iron which could quickly be assembled from a kit to provide a building until a more permanent structure could be constructed). The tabernacle was replaced by a permanent church and halls in 1901. Originally part of the Caledonian Road circuit of the Primitive Methodists, it joined the Finsbury Park circuit after the Methodists' union in 1931. In 1903 membership was so high that Mattison Road was described as the chief Primitive Methodist church in London. The church closed in 1963 and became a Roman Catholic church.

A Methodist circuit is normally a group of churches in a local area served by a team of ministers. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the circuit, along with local preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan.

Brentford is now part of the Richmond and Hounslow Methodist Circuit.

The Bow Circuit was the first Home Mission circuit in Methodism, and the newly formed Metropolitan Wesleyan chapel Building Fund purchased land in Bow Road for future development. Alexander McAulay was appointed superintendent of the newly created Bow Circuit in 1861.

In September 1900 Bow and Poplar Circuits were united to become the Poplar and Bow branch of the London Mission (the successor of the Metropolitan Wesleyan Chapel Building Fund which had helped to establish Bow in 1863).

In 1961 Poplar and Bow Mission was divided into two separate circuits of Poplar and Bow.

The Methodist Church established its first East-End Mission in 1885, hoping to combat the poverty and squalor of the area. Poverty and sin were fought by a combination of evangelism and social work, for example, handing out free meals during winter, organising trips to the seaside and showing films for a penny. The Mission had its own magazine, "The East End", which included articles on the scale of the distress.

As the population of the East End changed after the Second World War, so too did the Mission. In 1985 the Mission celebrated its centenary and highlighted its continuing work in socially deprived areas, supporting the homeless, unemployed, single parents, immigrants, the disabled and the elderly.

Shirley Street United Methodist Church, Canning Town, was founded in 1853, probably by Wesleyan Reformers. A small church was built in Victoria Dock Road in 1860. This was sold to the school board in 1873, when a new church and schoolroom were built in Shirley Street. Shirley Street was bombed in 1940, but continued in use until 1942, when the members moved to Canning Town Primitive Methodist Church. When that too was bombed a remnant went to Custom House Primitive Methodist Church. War damage compensation from Shirley Street helped to build the new church in Fife Road, Canning Town, in 1960. The Shirley Street site was sold to the borough council and by 1963 was occupied by houses.

From: A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6 (1973), pp. 123-141.

A Methodist Tabernacle is said to have existed in Morgan's Lane, Hayes End since 1874. It would seem that the church was registered in 1906 as the Hayes Tabernacle, Wood End Green. This registration was closed in 1927 and the church registered under the name of Morgan's Lane Church, Hayes End. In 1934 it moved to a new building in Uxbridge Road and was renamed Hayes End Methodist Church.

At a meeting of the Wandsworth Methodist Circuit in November 1902 it was decided to open a Wesleyan Chapel in Southfields to cater for the growing number of Methodist families in that area.

The first public service as held in the Merton Road School in December 1905. A School Chapel, with seating for 400 people, opened in Ravensbury Road in 1908. However, expansion was rapid and this was replaced in 1925 by the much larger Central Hall (on the corner of Ravensbury and Durnsford Road). In addition to being a place of worship the Central Hall was also intended to provide a meeting place for the local community. Music concerts and film shows were a regular feature for many years and parts of the premises were leased to local businesses.

The Leys School was opened in Cambridge in 1875, intended to be "the Methodist Eton".

The Leysian Mission was started in 1886 by former pupils of the Leys School who were concerned about the social and housing conditions in the East End of London. Its first premises were in nearby Whitecross Street but in 1902 the Mission moved into grand purpose-built premises in Old Street (just round the corner from Wesley's Chapel on City Road). It had vibrant evangelical and social ministries and encouraged alumni from the Cambridge school to give time to programmes that reached out to the poor. In the early days, there was a Medical Mission, a "poor man's lawyer", a relief committee, feeding programmes, meetings for men and women, and a range of services and musical activities.

Royalty patronised the Mission's great events and the school in Cambridge maintained strong links. However, the ravages of World War II and the advent of the post-war Welfare State saw a change in circumstance that led, eventually, to disposing of the buildings and the successful merger with Wesley's Chapel in 1989.

Source: http://www.wesleyschapel.org.uk/mission.htm.

The Home Mission Division of the Methodist Church is based at Central Buildings, Westminster. It is responsible for promotion of the Methodist Mission at 'home', that is in the UK. The Methodist Church in Britain is arranged into over 600 Circuits, which in turn are grouped into 32 Districts covering Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Each District is supervised by a District Synod.

Circuits and missions in the London North East District include: London City Road, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, Stoke Newington, Finsbury park and Southgate, Tottenham, Enfield, Waltham Abbey and Hertford, [Epping] Forest, Barking and Ilford, West Essex, Bishop's Stortford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Romford, Grays, Southend-on-sea, Leigh-on-sea, Basildon, Chelmsford, Colchester, Manningtree and Harwich, Clacton-on-Sea.

Circuits and missions in the London North-West District include: Notting Hill, Highgate, Harrow, Finchley and Hendon, Wembley, Harlesden, Barnet, Watford, Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamstead, Saint Albans, Harpenden, Hitchin and Letchworth, Stevenage, Welwyn, Luton, Dunstable, Bedford, Biggleswade, Leighton Buzzard and Stewkley, Milton Keynes, High Wycombe, Amersham, Aylesbury, Thame and Watlington.

Circuits and missions in the London South-West District include: Victoria and Chelsea, Broomwood and Clapham, Battersea, Lambeth, Hammersmith and Fulham, Richmond and Hounslow, Teddington, Ealing and Acton, Southall, Hillingdon, Wimbledon, Tooting, Kingston-upon-Thames, Staines and Feltham, Thames Valley, Sutton, Redhill and East Grinstead, Dorking and Horsham, Mid Sussex, Eastbourne, Brighton and Hove, Worthing, Guildford, Farnham and Alton, Basingstoke, Woking, Aldershot, Farnborough and Camberley, South East Berkshire.

Circuits and missions in the London South-East District include: Brixton, Streatham and Dulwich, Sydenham and Forest Hill, Walworth, Blackheath and Lewisham, Shooters Hill, Plumstead, Bromley, Orpington, Chislehurst, Croydon, Purley, Gravesend and Dartford, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Hastings, Bexhill and Rye, The Medway Towns, Maidstone, Sittingbourne and Sheerness, Canterbury, Thanet, Dover and Deal, Folkestone and Ashford.

The Dalston Methodist Church, Mayfield Road, was built by Wesleyan Methodists in 1865 and belonged to the Islington circuit. It transferred to the Mildmay Park circuit in 1899, and then transferred to the London Central Mission Circuit in 1905. The Minister's wife was killed when a flying bomb seriously damaged the manse [minister's residence] and damaged the church in January 1945. A new church was built on the same site in 1960, but was known as Richmond Road Church. The Church transferred to London Mission (Hackney and Clapton) Circuit in 1960.

Middle Lane Wesleyan Methodist church was founded in 1873, with help from the new Highgate circuit. The iron Trinity church in Hornsey High Street was temporarily used until the opening of a brick building at the corner of Middle Lane and Lightfoot Road in 1886. It seated 1,000 but was demolished in 1975 and replaced by one of red brick and concrete, seating 200.

Shortly after the foundation of Methodism by John Wesley, he concluded that he needed a permanent base from which to preach and convert. He founded a chapel to the east of the City of London, but this soon fell in to disrepair. In 1778 he built a new and more permanent chapel on the City Road, which still stands today. Wesley's Chapel has been altered in some ways but was restored after a major fund raising campaign in the 1970s, and re-opened in 1978 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Wesley's House was built by Wesley in 1779. It was Wesley's winter home and also provided a home for the preachers of the Chapel, their families and servants. The house is now open to visitors and contains many of John Wesley's belongings and furniture, including his electrical machine, his study chair and his small Prayer Room.

The Museum of Methodism was opened in 1984 in the Crypt of Wesley's Chapel. It tells the history of Methodism from John Wesley to the present day.

Epworth Hall is located in Helston, Cornwall. It was constructed in 1798 as a Wesleyan Methodist meeting hall and was named 'Epworth' after Wesley's birthplace in Lincolnshire.

The Methodist Church in Britain is arranged into over 600 Circuits, which in turn are grouped into 32 Districts covering Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Each District is supervised by a District Synod. The London North East District of the Methodist Church includes various missions, chapels and circuits in London and surrounding counties, including Whitechapel, Poplar, Bow, Hackney, Stoke Newington, East Ham, Finsbury Park and Southgate, Tottenham, Enfield, Waltham Abbey and Hertford, Wanstead and South Woodford, Walthamstow and Chingford, Leytonstone and Forest Gate, Ilford, Harlow, Bishop's Stortford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Romford, Grays, Southend-on-Sea, Leigh-on-Sea, Basildon, Chelmsford, Colchester, Manningtree and Harwich, and Clacton-on-Sea. Institutions belonging to this District include Wesley's Chapel, City Road; Wesley House; The Leys School, Cambridge; Queen Victoria's Seamen's Rest and the National Children's Home.

A Methodist circuit is normally a group of churches in a local area served by a team of ministers. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the circuit, along with local preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan.

Hugh Price Hughes a Wesleyan Minister in London founded the West London Mission in 1887 as part of the Forward Movement in Methodism which stressed that faith had to be expressed in social and political as well as personal life. The Inaugural meeting of the then West Central Mission was on 21st October 1887 with the Sermon at St. James' Hall, Piccadilly preached by C.H. Spurgeon. The West London Mission remained at St. James' Hall which was a popular Concert Hall, until 1905 when it was demolished to form the Piccadilly Hotel. The Mission moved to Exeter Hall, another concert hall, in the Strand.

In 1906 the Methodist Conference gave the Mission its own building, the Wesleyan Chapel at Great Queen Street. The building was later condemned by the LCC and the Mission were temporarily housed in the Lyceum Theatre, while on Great Queen Street at the old site a new place of worship, Kingsway Hall, was under construction. Kingsway Hall opened in 1912 and enjoyed nearly 70 years of occupation until it was sold in the eighties after the amalgamation of the Kingsway Circuit and Hinde Street; the Mission returned to the West End to Thayer Street/Hinde Street.

In the early days, much of the day to day work went on in smaller chapels and halls in the middle of slum areas where social needs were great. These buildings such as Craven Hall at Fouberts Place were used for a wide variety of activities not just devotional but social, education and welfare. However, this use of smaller halls was dropped after the First World War in favour of the new Kingsway Hall premises.

Since its beginning the West London Mission has been involved with social work. One of its first services offered was a Crèche. There were also job registries and men's social department catering for the unemployed, dispensaries and free surgeries, a poor man's lawyer service, a Home of Peace for the Dying, a home for homeless girls - The Winchester House, and a clothing store. In the 1920s and 1930s the social work of the West London Mission expanded. They set up hostels for abandoned mothers and for girls in London without jobs and in 1923 a Mission Maternity Hospital was established. The social work continued and now includes St. Luke's and St. Mary's Hostels for men and women, Emerson Bainbridge House for young offenders and the Katherine Price Hughes house set up in 1937 and which now provides accommodation for men and women on probation and bail.

Another aspect of the work of the Mission was Open Air Ministry. There were open air services on the streets every evening and in Hyde Park on Sundays which included the Mission brass band. One of the most well known open air preachers was the Reverend Lord Donald Soper whose outdoor work began in 1927 at Tower Hill and in 1942 at Speakers' Corner.

The Mission now has its home at 19 Thayer Street.

A Methodist circuit is normally a group of churches in a local area served by a team of ministers. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the circuit, along with local preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan. There has been much reorganisation as chapels closed and circuits were altered; for further details and names and dates of circuits, contact the Society of Cirplanologists who collect Circuit plans.