Showing 15888 results

In 1878 the Primitive Methodists registered a chapel in Western Road, Southall.

The Wesleyan Methodists opened a chapel in South Road in 1885. In 1916 the King's Hall was erected on the same site, forming the headquarters of Wesleyan Methodism in the area and provided a place for their social and religious meetings.

The Uxbridge and Southall Circuit served Methodist churches in South West London. It was reorganised in 2006 and the churches redistributed, for example, to the Ealing Trinity Circuit and the Amersham Circuit.

Poplar Methodist Church is situated in Emery Hall, Annabel Close, near to Queen Victoria's Seaman's Rest. It is part of the Tower Hamlets Circuit.

Harrow Methodist Circuit is now Harrow and Hillingdon Methodist Circuit of 17 churches, covering the London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Harrow and stretching from West Drayton and Hayes in the South to Kenton and Wealdstone in the North. 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.

For histories of the individual churches in ACC/3393 please see the sub-fonds record for each church (ACC/3393/BR, ACC/3393/CA and so on).

A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was first erected in 1810 on the eastern side of Lower Road, Roxeth, and accommodated 218 people. The chapel was registered in 1856, but was replaced in 1905 by a red brick Gothic building, with room for 650, in Bessborough Road. The chapel was closed in 1972 and the congregation joined theNorth Harrow Methodist Church.

Cannon Lane Methodist Church is situated in Pinner. It was opened in 1956. It is part of the Harrow and Hillingdon Circuit.

Harrow Methodist Circuit is now Harrow and Hillingdon Methodist Circuit of 17 churches, covering the London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Harrow and stretching from West Drayton and Hayes in the South to Kenton and Wealdstone in the North. 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.

Eastcote Methodist Church began as meetings in private houses, begun in around 1825. In 1848 the first Methodist chapel was built opposite the present chapel in Pamela Gardens. This served the Eastcote congregation until a new chapel in Pamela Gardens, the building of which had been delayed by the Second World War, was substantially completed. The chapel was occupied in 1950 and building work finished in 1962.

There was a Methodist mission room in Harrow Weald from 1889 to 1935, and a chapel in Station Road, Wealdstone, from 1892 to 1904, when it was replaced by the present chapel in Locket Road (now Wealdstone Methodist Church, see ACC/3392/WE).

The Methodist Church on Ickenham Road, Ruislip, was founded in 1923.

A Wesleyan Methodist church was opened in 1929 to serve the new Kenton estate, near Harrow, and was replaced by another church and a hall on the same site, Woodgrange Avenue, in 1937.

Wesleyan Methodists in North Harrow met in a private house in Southfield Park until a hall was built in Pinner Road in 1927. It was extended in the 1930s and a church was built next to it in 1957.

In Northwood Primitive Methodists met in a house called 'Elthorne' in the modern High Street from about 1896. In that year a school chapel to accommodate 250 people was built on the corner of High Street and Hallowell Road. The present church next to the school chapel was completed in 1903. It was further extended in 1910, and a new vestry added in 1927. Enemy action caused considerable damage to the building in 1944. From 1905 a group of about 20 Wesleyan Methodists worshipped in a house in Chester Road. Two years later a temporary corrugated iron church was erected in Hallowell Road. After the construction of a permanent building in Oaklands Gate in 1924, the temporary structure was transferred there for use as a church hall. A new hall and classrooms costing £22,500 were completed in 1962. After the Methodist Union in 1932 these two churches became known as the High Street and Oaklands Gate Methodist churches.

From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 145-146.

Ruislip Common Chapel was built in 1854 and taken over for use by a Methodist congregation in 1882.

Ruislip Manor Methodist Church was built in 1937 on Torrington Road.

South Harrow Methodist Church is situated on the corner of Walton Avenue and Carlyon Avenue.

South Ruislip Methodist Church is situated on Queen's Walk. It was opened in 1951.

Harrow Methodist Church, Welldon Crescent, was opened in 1904. The church has now closed and the building has been converted into the Welldon Community Centre.

The Wealdstone Methodist Church has its origins in a Methodist mission room in Harrow Weald from 1889 to 1935. The congregation used a chapel in Station Road, Wealdstone, from 1892 to 1904, when it was replaced by the present chapel in Locket Road.

The Leysian Mission was founded in 1886 as a large Wesleyan Methodist settlement and mission by past and present scholars of the Leys School, Cambridge. The work started in Whitecross Street, moved to 12 Errol Street in 1890, and then moved in 1904 to the new headquarters building in City Road, Finsbury. This striking building of terracotta bricks and red granite, costing £124,000, was designed by Messrs Bradshaw and Gass. The Queen Victoria Hall seated 2,000 persons and the building itself accommodated 125 rooms and four roof gardens for settlement purposes, with commercial premises at street frontage level.

At the opening of the building by the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1904, Lord Strathcona described the object of the mission as two-fold "to bring religious and ameliorative influences to bear upon the lives of toilers in one of the most crowded districts in London" and "to give to those who have enjoyed the privilege of a public school education the opportunity of coming into direct and sympathetic contact with the social problems that appeal for their solution to the Christian Church and to all good citizens at large".

The Circuit included Haggerston Methodist Mission, Brownlow Street and Shoreditch Methodist Mission, Nichols Square, Hackney Road. The Leysian Mission closed in 1989 and the congregation united with Wesley's Chapel, City Road to form Wesley's Chapel and Leysian Centre.

Ruislip Common Chapel was built in 1854 and taken over for use by a Methodist congregation in 1882. It is now closed.

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.

Holly Park Methodist Church, Crouch Hill, was founded in 1875, although a permament hall was not built until 1882. The Weston Park Mission was begun by the Holly Park Church although it was later taken over by the Middle Lane Church. The Holly Park Methodist Church Hall is now used by the Holly Park Montessori School.

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 London Central Mission Circuit of the Methodist Church had its origins in 1886 with the establishment of the London Central Mission at the already well-established Wesleyan Methodist church in St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, which became the principal church of the circuit. Many of the records of the circuit as a whole were lost when the St. John's Square church was destroyed by enemy action in 1941. The circuit was abolished in 1960, when its remaining churches were transferred to the London Mission (North) Circuit and the London Mission (Hackney and Clapton) Circuit.

Wesleyan Methodists built a church at King Street, Camden Town, in 1824. In 1860 the King Street premises were sold to a Primitive Methodist congregation, and a new church was constructed at Camden Street. Following the union of Methodist churches in 1932 the congregations were united. The King Street church was renamed Plender Street Church and became the main church, while the Camden Street church became a mission hall and youth centre and were later demolished.

The Camden Street Wesleyan Methodist Church belonged to the Second London Circuit/Great Queen Street Circuit until around 1866, when it transferred to the Kentish Town Circuit. It then transferred to the London Central Mission Circuit in around 1887.

The King Street, Camden Town Primitive Methodist Church belonged to the Ninth London Circuit until around 1885, when it transferred to the Camden Town Circuit.

After the Methodist Church Union in 1932 both churches joined the Camden Town Circuit, though in practice this small circuit appears to have been administered as part of London Central Mission Circuit and was officially absorbed into the London Central Mission Circuit in 1956.

The Wesleyan Methodist Church, Caledonian Road was built at the corner of Hillmarton Road in 1866. It was a member of the Highbury Circuit until its closure in 1916.

Haggerston Methodist Church was also known as Haggerston Mission Hall. It was established by Wesleyan Methodists at Hilcot Street as part of the Islington circuit. In 1900 it transferred to the Mildmay Park Circuit and then in 1905 to the London Central Mission Circuit. New premises were opened at Haggerston Road in 1932. The Church was transferred to the London Mission (Hackney and Clapton) Circuit in 1960.

Islington Central Methodist Church was also known as Islington Central Hall. It was built in 1929 to replace Wesleyan Methodist churches at Drayton Park, Highbury and Liverpool Road, Islington. The first minister was the Reverend Donald Soper who was there between 1929 and 1936. Soper cleared the Church of debt, developed children's cinema, organized breakfasts for 500 each Christmas morning, and sponsored concerts and variety evenings. He also founded a centre where unemployed men could barter their skills. The Church left the London Central Mission Circuit in 1938 and in 1941 united with Archway Central Hall to form the London Mission North Circuit. The church was closed in 1953 and the work transferred to the Albany Mission, Hornsey Road, which was itself replaced by Islington Central Methodist Church, Palmers Place in 1963.

King's Cross Central Methodist Mission, Crestfield Street was opened in 1825 on Chesterfield Street by the Wesleyan Methodists as Battle Bridge Church. It was renamed as King's Cross Church in 1836 and was initially part of the Second London Circuit/Great Queen Street Circuit. In 1904 it transferred to the Prince of Wales Road Circuit, then in 1921 to the West London Mission Circuit. In 1937 Chesterfield Street was re-named Crestfield Street. In 1945 the Church transferred to the London Central Mission Circuit, then in 1960 to the London Mission (North) Circuit.

King's Cross Methodist Mission, Charlotte Street was also known as Charlotte Street Methodist Church. It was built by the Wesleyan Methodist Association in 1841. Charlotte Street was re-named Carnegie Street in 1938. The Church was destroyed by a land mine in 1941 but the congregation continued to meet at Liberal Hall, 314 Caledonian Road. The church was transferred from the Hackney Circuit to the Tottenham Circuit, then to the Caledonian Road Circuit and finally the London Central Mission Circuit in 1956. The Church was dissolved in 1960 and the members transferred to King's Cross Central Mission.

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.

The Maidstone Street Methodist Church, Haggerston, was first used by Wesleyan Reformers in 1852. In 1896 the congregation moved to the Harbour Light Church on Goldsmith's Row, Haggerston. The Church joined the London Central Mission Circuit in 1940 but was forced to close after sustaining bomb damage in 1944. It reopened in 1946, and transferred to the London Mission (Hackney and Clapton) Circuit in 1960.

The Penton Hall Methodist Church was opened on Penton Street by Wesleyan Methodists in 1866. In 1872 the congregation moved to Twyford Street and renamed the church Twyford Hall Methodist Church. Both churches belonged to the Islington Circuit. The church was closed in 1890.

Herne Hill Methodist Church, Railton Road was in the Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth in south London. It was not part of the London Central Mission Circuit. During the period covered by the records in this deposit it was part of the Brixton Circuit of the United Methodist Church.

Saint John's Square Church was built by Wesleyan Methodists in 1849. It established the London Central Mission in 1886. In May 1941 it was totally gutted on the worst night of the London Blitz. The congregation met in various temporary premises including St James' Anglican church, Clerkenwell and Finsbury Town Hall. In 1949 temporary buildings were opened on the original site, however, in 1957 the church was closed and the remaining buildings were demolished.

Methodism was established in the Highgate and Hornsey region in the early nineteenth century. It expanded alongside housing in the area and more churches were constructed. These churches belonged to the Islington Circuit until 1873, when the Highgate Circuit was established.

Holly Park Methodist Church, Crouch Hill, was founded in 1875, although a permament hall was not built until 1882. The Weston Park Mission was begun by the Holly Park Church although it was later taken over by the Middle Lane Church. The Holly Park Methodist Church Hall is now used by the Holly Park Montessori School.

The Hornsey Road Methodist Church was a Wesleyan Methodist foundation.

The Kentish Town circuit appears to have been formed after the division of the Great Queen Street Circuit in around 1866. It served churches in the Kentish Town and Camden area.

Muswell Hill Wesleyan Methodist church occupied a wooden building at the foot of the Avenue, Wood Green, in 1898 and moved to the corner of Colney Hatch Lane and Alexandra Park Road in 1899. The building is of red brick with stone dressings, in a Gothic style, and has a corner turret terminating in an octagonal lantern.

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.

The Winchmore Hill Wesleyan Methodist Church is part of the Finsbury Circuit of the London North East Division. It originated in 1879 when Thomas Kelsey, a Congregationist and property developer moved to the area of Winchmore Hill (less than 10 miles from London) and built himself a house known as Highfield House. He had employed a missionary to hold meetings in the Congregational School Rooms in Hoppen Road for the benefit of the men employed in the construction and development of the Bowes Park and the Eaton Park Estates.

Thomas Kelsey offered the Finsbury Park Methodist Circuit a plot of land on the sole condition that a chapel was built there and regular services undertaken. This was subsequently agreed upon and on 30th November 1880, the stone laying took place.

The Chapel opened for worship in 1881 with services taken by the Reverend Charles Moore. The chapel was originally known as Eaton Park Wesleyan Chapel as it was situated some distance from both Winchmore Hill and Palmers Green.

By 1906 the area around the chapel was expanding rapidly giving support to the Methodist congregation. This development encouraged the Trustees to propose the building of a new chapel in front of the existing one. They began by establishing a new Trust in 1907 and a Building Fund to raise money. However, it was not until another 5 years in 1912 that the New church stone laying ceremony took place and on 28th September 1912 the church was officially opened and dedicated.

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.

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.

Gospel Oak Methodist Church on Agincourt Road originated in 1875 in Wesleyan Methodist meetings held in Lismore Circus. The meetings were recognized as a mission in 1877 and placed under the control of the Prince of Wales Road church. A site at the corner of Lisburne Road was bought but only a school was built at first. A permanent church building opened in 1900. In 1940 the Grafton Road Methodist Church was amalgamated with the Gospel Oak church. The need to carry out building repairs brought about a union with the Prince of Wales Road Methodist Church at the Gospel Oak site in 1965. The church was duly demolished in 1970 and the new building opened in 1971.

The Prince of Wales Wesleyan Methodist Church stood in Prince of Wales Road, Kentish Town. The church closed in 1965 when it merged with the Gospel Oak Methodist Church, and the building was converted to a Dance Centre.

In 1858 Mill Lane Primitive Methodist Church was located at Little Church Row in Hampstead. The church was relocated to Mill Lane, West Hampstead in 1886 and was registered in 1890 as the Ebenezer Primitive Methodist chapel. The church closed and was demolished in the late 1970s.

Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9: Hampstead, Paddington (1989), pp. 153-158.

Wesleyan Methodists first met in 1886 in a house in College Road, Kensal Rise. A tin chapel opened in 1887 in Hiley Road, replaced by a brick chapel in 1900 at the corner of Chamberlayne Wood Road and Ladysmith Road (later Wrentham Avenue), near Kensal Rise railway station. Attendance in 1903 was 330 for morning service and 568 for evening service. The Chapel was sold to the Roman Catholic Church in 1977, although the Methodists continued to meet in an adjacent hall. In 2006 the hall hosted a temporary advice and support centre following a tornado strike on Chamberlayne Road.

From: 'Willesden: Protestant nonconformity', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 242-246.

The first small group of Methodists in Southgate joined together for worship at a cottage in Chelmsford Road in 1885. The group soon outgrew their first meeting place and moved in turn to a baker's shop, a marquee, an old corrugated iron building called the Iron Chapel and, in 1891, the Wesleyan Chapel on Chase Side (near present day St Andrew's). By the early 1920s, Southgate was changing from village to suburb with the coming of the Southgate tube station, and plans were made to move the church to a still larger site on Bourne Hill.

October 1929 saw the congregation's first worship service in its new location. Southgate Methodist Church became known locally as The Bourne Methodist Church due to its location and to distinguish it from New Southgate Methodist Church in Barnet. The rapidly expanding Sunday School meant that new rooms were built in 1937. The two-storey building of Martin Luther and St Augustine halls opened in 1956 and has since housed a wide variety of church and community activities.

In the 1990s a major redevelopment scheme modernised the worship facilities and provided greatly improved premises now constantly in use by the church and community for worship, study, relaxation, meetings, and activities. The church is part of the Enfield Circuit.

Source: http://www.enfieldcircuit.com/SouthgateHistory.htm

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.

In 1885 the Wesleyan Methodist Church established its first Mission at Saint George's Church, Cable Street, Shadwell, with the Reverend Peter Thompson as Superintendent. The Church aimed to combat the poverty and squalor of the East End of London with a combination of evangelism and social work. The Mission at Saint George's rapidly expanded and new Missions were opened at Stepney, Mile End, Bethnal Green and Tower Hill. Free meals were handed out during hard winters, medical care was provided and events were organised for children including trips to the sea-side, penny films and Christmas treats. The Mission also campaigned on political issues, particularly for temperance and the closure of Music Halls. Articles on such issues appeared in the monthly magazine of the Mission - the 'East End' and later the 'East End Star'.

Following the foundation of the welfare state after the Second World War the Mission shifted the focus of its social work. Saint George's was converted into a centre for the care of homeless men and the Mission as a whole developed its support for immigrant communities, single parents, the disabled, the unemployed and those in inadequate housing. A care home for the elderly was established in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex and a campsite opened at Lambourne End in the Hainault Forest, Essex. A Social Studies Centre was opened to provide voluntary placements for Sociology students.

The London Methodist Choir was part of the London North East District of the Methodist Church. 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.