Bristol Road Methodist Church is a former

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

place of worship in the Kemptown area of Brighton, part of the English city of

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...

. Built in 1873 to an Italian Romanesque Revival design, it served this part of eastern Brighton for more than a century until its closure in 1989, after which it became a recording studio. It is owned by

Brighton College Brighton College is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 3 to 18 in Brighton, England. The school has three sites: Brighton College (the senior school, ages 11 to 18); Brighton College Preparatory Sc ...

, a

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

based nearby. The building has been

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

at Grade II in view of its architectural importance.

History

Brighton's first Methodist church opened in 1808 in Dorset Gardens off St James's Street, a recently developed road east of the Old Steine and the

Royal Pavilion The Royal Pavilion, and surrounding gardens, also known as the Brighton Pavilion, is a Grade I listed former royal residence located in Brighton, England. Beginning in 1787, it was built in three stages as a seaside retreat for George, Princ ...

. By the 1870s, housing had spread much further east, and the area between

Thomas Read Kemp Thomas Read Kemp (23 December 1782 – 20 December 1844) was an English property developer and politician. Life He was the son of Sussex landowner and Member of Parliament Thomas Kemp, and his wife Anne, daughter of Henry Read of Brookland ...

's high-class

Kemp Town Kemp Town Estate, also known as Kemp Town, is a 19th-century Regency architecture residential estate in the east of Brighton in East Sussex, England, UK. It consists of Arundel Terrace, Lewes Crescent, Sussex Square, Chichester Terrace, and ...

estate and the earlier development around St James's Street had been filled in with high-density housing. The area became known as Kemptown . In 1872, Reverend J. Martin, a Methodist minister, proposed the construction of a new church to serve this area. Architect Thomas Lainson, who also designed several buildings (including a Congregational church) in Hove and the Middle Street Synagogue in Brighton, was commissioned to draw up a design. He submitted this on 1 March 1872. A builder named John Fielder was responsible for construction, which continued through 1873. A stone tablet (now partly illegible) at the base of the tower, dated 7 October 1873, names Lainson, Fielder and Reverend Martin, and bears the inscription . The church was part of the Wesleyan Methodist tradition, and during the early 20th century became part of a circuit of six local Wesleyan churches; the others were the nearby Dorset Gardens Methodist Church (also in Kemptown), Hove Methodist Church, and others in

Hurstpierpoint Hurstpierpoint is a village in West Sussex, England, southwest of Burgess Hill, and west of Hassocks railway station. It sits in the civil parish of Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common which has an area of 2029.88 ha and a population ...

Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...

and Southwick. A closure proposal was announced in 1987. In 1989, the congregation moved out and began to share St Mary the Virgin, a nearby Anglican church. After this, the building was sold and converted into a recording studio. It is now owned by Brighton College. The former church was

at Grade II on 26 August 1999. It is one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of

Architecture

Thomas Lainson adopted the Italian

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

style for his design. The building is of brown and red brick, laid in the

English bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

pattern, with dressings of stone and pale brick. There is a tower at the southeast corner, rising in three stages and capped by a short spire and a lead roof. Most of the main roof area is laid with slate, but there is one

timber-framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large woode ...

section as well. The south face has a stair turret at the southwest corner and the tower at the opposite corner; and between these is the entrance porch, a portico with three arches separated by columns of granite topped with abaci of stone. Three round-arched windows, with stone surrounds and an architrave, are above this; and the façade is completed by a rose window below the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof. There is another entrance in a small porch on the east face of the tower. The internal layout consisted of a three- bay

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

leading into a

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...

, and a single-storey

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

with four arched stone-dressed windows on the northeast side.

Notes

Bibliography

* * * {{Sussex Nonconformism Churches completed in 1873 19th-century Methodist church buildings 1989 disestablishments in England Former Methodist churches in the United Kingdom Former churches in Brighton and Hove Methodist churches in East Sussex Churches in Brighton and Hove Grade II listed churches in East Sussex Romanesque Revival church buildings in England Recording studios in England Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove 19th-century churches in the United Kingdom

History

Architecture

See also

Notes

Bibliography