Collection N/M/012 - WARWICK GARDENS CHAPEL, KENSINGTON

0.31 linear metres

N/M/012 1863-1926 Collection 0.31 linear metres Methodist Church of Great Britain x United Methodist Church x Wesleyan Methodist Church x Primitive Methodist Church

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.

Deposited in 1971 (AC/71/024).

Register of baptisms, 1864-1925; register of marriages, 1881-1926; Building Committee and Trustees minute book, 1863-1901; Trustees minute book, 1902-1919; Executive Committee minute book, 1922-1925; reports of West London Mission, 1925; correspondence, 1925-1926.

N/M/012/1-2: Registers; N/M/012/3-4: Minutes and correspondence.

Available for general access.

Copyright: Depositor
English

Fit

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

See also N/M/013.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997. January to March 2009 Protestant nonconformity Methodism Primary documents Church records and registers Baptism registers Nonconformists Architecture Buildings Religious buildings Chapels Nonconformist chapels Organisation and management Administration Church administration Religious groups Christians Protestants Protestant nonconformists Methodists Information sources Documents Parish records Marriage registers Protestantism Christianity Ancient religions Religions Churches Religion Warwick Gardens Methodist Chapel Kensington London England UK Western Europe Kensington and Chelsea Europe Legal documents Nonconformity

Deposited in 1971 (AC/71/024).

Register of baptisms, 1864-1925; register of marriages, 1881-1926; Building Committee and Trustees minute book, 1863-1901; Trustees minute book, 1902-1919; Executive Committee minute book, 1922-1925; reports of West London Mission, 1925; correspondence, 1925-1926.

N/M/012/1-2: Registers; N/M/012/3-4: Minutes and correspondence.

Available for general access.

Copyright: Depositor

• English

• Latin

English

See also N/M/013.

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

• English