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.
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.
Willoughby Road Wesleyan Methodist church opened as a Sunday school chapel in 1885, on land acquired in 1882 near the corner of Hampden Road. Classrooms were built in 1889 and a church, perhaps replacing an iron one, was opened on the corner site to the east in 1893. A lecture hall and more classrooms were added to the north in 1903. The congregation, which belonged to the Finsbury Park circuit, was joined by many from Mattison Road in 1963. After a fire in 1973 Willoughby Road church was replaced by a yellow-brick structure which, with the adjoining schoolroom in Hampden Road, seated 300.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate (1980), pp. 183-189.
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.
Hither Green Wesleyan Methodist Church stood in the angle of Wellmeadow Road and Hither Green Lane, Lewisham. It was built in 1900 by architects Gordon, Lowther and Gunton, but was destroyed by bombing in 1940. A new church was built on Torridon Road. It is part of the Blackheath and Lewisham Methodist Circuit.
The Welsh Methodist Church was situated on Chiltern Street, Marylebone.
In 1887 Hugh Price Hughes was appointed the first Superintendent Minister of the West London Mission. Together with his wife, Katherine, he developed practical programmes for the poor and laid the foundations for much of the Mission's work. Katherine herself was responsible for the establishment of 'The Sisters of the People', an order of women serving the poor.
Initially the Mission was based in St. James's Hall in Piccadilly from where the inaugural service was given on 21 October 1887. Hughes died in 1902 and three years later in 1905 St. James's Hall was demolished. There followed a period of movement for the West London Mission and its congregation. First relocating to Exeter Hall, in 1907 the Mission moved to Great Queen Street before renting the Lyceum Theatre in 1909.
The movement of the mission could only be a temporary measure until suitable accommodation was found. In 1911 institutional buildings at Kingsway Hall, Holborn were completed and in 1912 the Hall opened for public services. With a hall designed to seat 2,000 people and institutional buildings with space for a gymnasium, boys and girls clubs, schoolrooms and lecture halls, and a crèche it seemed as though the West London Mission had found its home.
In 1936 a second great figure in the Mission's history, Donald Soper, went to Kingsway Hall. He would remain as Superintendent until his retirement in 1978. At this time the relocation of the Mission once again became a necessary consideration.
By 1980 Kingsway Hall was no longer fit for purpose and the West London Mission offices and Kingsway Hall congregation moved to Hinde Street. A Methodist chapel had stood on Hinde Street since 1810 and had become part of the West London Mission in 1917. From this new home activities such as a Wednesday club and an open-access provision for the homeless were able to continue.
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.
Methodism was established in the Highgate and Hornsey region in the early nineteenth century. It expanded alongside housing in the area and more Methodist churches were constructed. Churches in the area belonged to the Islington Circuit until 1873, when the Highgate Circuit was established.
The Brunswick Methodist Chapel was situated on Balcombe Street, Saint Marylebone.
Cleveland Hall was situated on Cleveland Street, Marylebone. It was a foundation of the West London Mission and was dedicated to helping young women who were in poverty.
The Craven Chapel and Hall were situated on Foubert's Place in the West End of London, near Regent Street. The chapel was constructed in 1822 by the Congregational Church, however, their membership had declined so much that by 1894 they sold the leases of the chapel and hall to the West London Mission of the Methodist Church. The hall was used for a wide variety of activities not just devotional but social, educational and welfare. By 1907 the leases had expired and the buildings were subsequently sold and used for commercial purposes.
The Great Queen Street Chapel was founded in 1706 as a dissenting chapel constructed in the garden of a home on Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1758 the chapel was purchased by the Reverend Thomas Francklyn and became a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. The chapel was rebuilt in 1817 when land was bought in neighbouring gardens in order to construct a larger building with galleries.
The chapel was the centre of the Great Queen Street Circuit which was formed in the 1820s and stretched as far as Finchley and Barnet. In 1906 the Methodist Conference gave the Chapel to the West London Mission. The building was later condemned by the London County Council and the Mission was 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.
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.
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 Stanhope Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was situated near the Hampstead Road, north of Euston and near Regent's Park. It was part of the West London Mission.
On 5 September 1688 James II issued letters patent incorporating a body of ten French ministers and granting them a licence to establish one or more churches for the Huguenot refugees in the City and suburbs. Two churches, both known as 'La Patente', were established by the ministers, one in Spitalfields and the other in Berwick Street in the parish of St. James, Westminster. In 1694 part of the congregation of the latter removed to Little Chapel Street (now Sheraton Street) off Wardour Street, Westminster, and became known as La Petite or La Nouvelle Patente.In 1784 the congregation merged with that of Les Grecs-La Savoie, which survived, latterly as the French Episcopal Church, in Shaftesbury Avenue, until c 1925.
For a period after 1784 the chapel was used by the Methodists, but in 1796 a lease of the building was taken by a part of Dr John Trotter's Scots Presbyterian congregation from Swallow Street (see LMA/4365). The Presbyterians continued to use the chapel, which by 1850 had become known as the Wardour Chapel, until 1889, when it was taken over by the Wesleyan West Central London Mission. The Wesleyans remained until about 1894, when the building was demolished to make way for Novello's printing works.
From: 'Wardour Street Area: Pulteney Estate', Survey of London: volumes 33 and 34: St Anne Soho (1966), pp. 288-296.
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.
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.
The New Chapel, or as it later became known, Wesley's Chapel, was opened for public worship on 1 November 1778. It stood as a successor to the old Foundery Chapel bought in 1739 which was situated a few hundred metres to the south east.
The Chapel is important as the "Mother Church of World Methodism", the scene of many famous events such as the Uniting Conference of Primitive Methodists, United Methodists and Wesleyan Methodists in 1932. It also acts as the focal point of the City Road Circuit, also known as London East Circuit (1807-1823) and the First London Circuit. 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.
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.
A Sunday School was established in 1798 at 74 Golden Lane, off the south side of Old Street, and in 1819 moved to Radnor Street, off the north side of Old Street in Islington. The Sunday School was situated near to the City Road Chapel and belonged to the Circuit run from that Chapel. It was the first Methodist Sunday School in London. In 1837 a Day School was also opened at the Radnor Street site. The Day Schools were closed 29 May 1903.
The New North Road Chapel was situated in Hoxton, Hackney.
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.
The Wilson Street Chapel was in the First London Circuit between 1857 and 1864. It was situated off Finsbury Square in the City of London. It served the Welsh Wesleyan Methodist community.
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.
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.