12 September 2010 – Trip: Sidwell Street Methodist Chapel, Exeter

Synopsis: A visit to the Methodist Church, Sidwell Street, Exeter, as part of Heritage Open Days event this September.

Photo Set – Flickr

 

This blog post describes a visit made possible under the Heritage Open Days (HOD) scheme. To see other blog posts which describe Heritage Open Days visits, please see Tag in column to the right.

These are some notes I made about my visit:

- Sponsord by Reed of Reed Hall, on the University campus. A couple of the stained glass windows carry dedications to Reed.

- The architect Cottancin (French) went bankrupt thereby delaying the building programme. For quite some time the building stood without a roof. During a pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Exeter, someone on stage would ask the question, "Is there a roof on the Methodist Church yet? It obviously became a standing joke around the city.

- The church was lucky to have survived the bombings during the blitz of World War II. Virtually all of Sidwell Street was flattened, and much of Summerlands Street. There is a photo taken at the time, showing the buildings laid to waste all around the church.

- The concrete construction allows for a balcony surrounding most of the church to exist without requiring supports. The large dome is covered with a mix of copper and lead.

- The people of the church sought to put up a notice board advertising what it is, but this was rejected, particularly by the Victorian Society (John Betjeman?), on the grounds that it is a Grade II listed building.

- The pews appear to be original, and are numbered, because people would 'purchase their family pew'. The church goers are currently campaigning to remove the pews as there are various uses to which they could put the church if they were replaced with more conventional (comfortable) seating. There are objections to this raised by the various authorities protecting the heritage of the building (thankfully).

- Concerts have been staged at the church.

- There is one other church of similar construction to this, and this is somewhere in France.

- The Boys Brigade have produced a Kodak Photo Gallery photo album of the church which I viewed on my visit.

- The partition that runs across the back of the church is not original, but has been constructed very sympathetic to the original design of the church.