Methodist Church

Methodist Church

This is a Methodist church and meeting rooms built in 1880 to designs by Bellamy and Hardy, the Lincolnshire architects. It is constructed in red brick with stone dressings and a slate roof.

The building is aligned north to south on a rectangular plan. The facade extends beyond the width of the main body by corner bays containing stairs, a layout that takes advantage of the church's position between two main thoroughfares without strict orientation requirements.

The exterior displays a classical design with two storeys. The front elevation is tripartite, formed by a gabled centre flanked by square towers with balustraded parapets at roof level. The gable has coped and bracketed eaves, and displays a date plaque inscribed "Wesleyan 1880" in relief. The wide central bay is approached by steps leading to double doors articulated by stone columns. Above the doors is a semi-circular fanlight with geometric tracery. The glass doors are late 20th-century replacements. Flanking the doorway are tall, narrow windows with arched stone hood mouldings and foliated keystones. This fenestration pattern and decoration is mirrored on the first floor, with a large central arched window with simple tracery and tall narrow windows on either side, the glazing comprising decorative leaded lights. The facade articulation suggests an aisled plan, but doors in the right and left bays actually provide access to staircases leading to the galleried central hall.

The side elevations contain six window bays with stone string courses above and below the upper storey windows. Ground floor windows have three-centred arches with decorative hood mouldings and keystones above the recesses. First floor windows are round-arched with matching hood mouldings and keystones. Original decorative stained glass windows of simple monochrome design survive.

Internally, the vestibule has been divided from the main hall by modern glass panelling and an open curved arcade to form a coffee lounge. At each side of the vestibule are wooden staircases with original banister rails, balustrades, panelling and screens in very good condition, leading to the gallery and main auditorium.

The main hall is open and explicitly ornate with a painted coffered ceiling, similar to that of Retford Town Hall, also by Bellamy and Hardy. The oval galleried auditorium retains the majority of original fixtures and fittings including the pews. The curving gallery is supported on columns with ornate painted scroll and foliate work to their heads. The intersecting arch motif on the balustrade at the gallery front is intact. The floor slopes down towards a railed pulpit at ground level, which forms the obvious focal point of the auditorium. Organ pipes sit above the pulpit in the gallery. To the rear of the main hall are offices, meeting rooms and kitchens, some of which have been subdivided and repurposed.

This building replaced an earlier Methodist chapel built on the site in 1822, which had become too small. Since its construction in 1880, extensions have been added, including Chapelgate Hall built to the rear in 1958, the Albert Hall, and caretaker accommodation. The current organ was installed in 1913 as a new instrument designed specifically for this church. In 1990 the vestibule was enlarged and enclosed to incorporate a coffee bar and glass entrance doors.

Despite some changes over time, the church has undergone minimal alteration to its original fabric and fittings.