The Lighthouse Methodist Church

The Lighthouse Methodist Church

Methodist church of 1893, designed by J. Williams Dunford and reconfigured internally in 1979.

The building stands on the corner of Markhouse Road and Downsfield Road in Walthamstow, comprising two sections: a larger auditorium block and a smaller two-storey range to the north. Both are constructed in stock brick with red brick dressings.

The auditorium section presents a Queen Anne style variant façade to Markhouse Road, its essentially four-bay composition marked by red brick colonnettes or ribs that emphasise the division of bays. Terracotta cornices and string courses run across the façade, which has a pedimented gable end featuring an oculus inscribed 'AD 1893'. The ground storey contains two pairs of double doors, the larger pair set beneath a pediment carried on tall scroll brackets. Two triplets of round-headed windows with gauged red brick round arches flank the entrance, above which plasterwork plaques read 'United Methodist', 'Free Churches', and 'U.M.F.C.'. The upper storey has three single windows with segmental moulded terracotta surrounds and aprons ornamented with garlands. All windows and doors are original. The architectural vocabulary—red brick ribs evoking fortress-like qualities, cross-shaped slit windows, and the overall character—echoes Salvation Army Citadels of the period, presenting more a late 19th-century mission hall than a conventional church.

The most distinctive feature is the lighthouse: a circular turret with a steep slated octagonal spire topped by a domed lantern, positioned on the corner. The door at its base faces the corner junction, balancing an identical door in the southernmost bay. The lintel bears the foundation stone recording commencement in January 1892. Above this is a plaque announcing 'The Lighthouse', with a shield above bearing the inscription 'Have Faith in God'. The lighthouse incorporates the same terracotta colonnettes and string courses as the main façade, simple rectangular lights with plain lintels and painted white cills, two cross-shaped slit windows, and a spiralling moulded string course in white that enhances the whimsical design. Originally, the lighthouse was fitted with a revolving light that beamed out on winter mornings during Sunday services. The architect's original drawings survive and show the façade has been little altered; a small turret marked on the south-east corner was either not built or has been removed.

The side elevations are plainer, with regular fenestration featuring red brick flat arches set in relieving panels with stepped red brick tops. The two-storey block to the north continues this theme, with a canted bay front and a tiny oculus in its gable end, which appears to have been rebuilt in the late 20th century.

The interior was substantially altered in 1979, though the original configuration remains legible. The original galleried auditorium has been divided laterally with the ground floor subdivided into four rooms. Iron columns supporting the gallery remain visible. A central staircase was inserted to access the remodelled worship space above. The two original staircases in the north-east and south-west corners retain their treads, though balusters appear to be later replacements and the stairwells were panelled during the 1979 refurbishment. The upper auditorium retains its coffered ceiling, which indicates the extent of 1979 alterations, most significantly the insertion of a partition wall. Behind this partition, in the inserted stairwell, the proscenium arch and balcony arcading of the original auditorium survive, evoking an Edwardian music hall appearance. The organ remains, though relocated; stained glass that once adorned the two windows behind the proscenium arch has been removed. In the second block are two rooms with surviving joinery including a fireplace and wall cupboards in the ground floor room.

The Lighthouse Methodist Church opened in 1893 as a replacement for a house in Myrtle Road, Walthamstow that had served Methodists originally from a Wesleyan church in Hackney. This group began their church mission in 1887 and after breaking with their parent church, planned a United Free Church with an unsalaried minister. Captain King of the Bullard King Steamers, a company running direct services from London to East African ports and from India to South Africa carrying field labourers for sugar plantations, became an early supporter. In 1889 Captain King donated the Markhouse Road site and funded the building, begun in 1892. The church's design and name reflect his seafaring profession. Little is known of architect J. Williams Dunford. In 1903, the church was the best-attended nonconformist church in Walthamstow, with congregations exceeding 1,500.