Hinde Street Methodist Church G.V. II Church. 1881-87 by James Weir. Gault brick, channelled to ground floor, and brown stone dressings; slate roof. Corner site. A classical church design with some English Baroque references. The front has slightly projecting, central, 2-storeyed, pedimented entrance portico flanked by pavilions (reminiscent of St. Paul's Cathedral and similarly with paired columns and carved tympanum). Rising over western corner pavilion is a 3-stage octagonal tower and spire, set above 4 solid finialed pinnacles at corners; lower stage has semicircular arched windows with engaged Corinthian columns at angles supporting entablature and balustrade; smaller middle stage with narrow semicircular arched openings; spire stage supported by consoles above pilasters. Beyond corner pavilion the 4-bay return to Thayer Street sets back, with ground floor windows, as on front, with cornices on consoles, while the gallery windows have dentilled pediments on pilasters and inset balustrades; the bays are divided by superimposed orders of Doric and Corinthian engaged columns; crowning entablature and balustraded parapet. The eastern corner pavilion originally intended to have balancing tower and spire.
The original Methodist chapel on this site was built in 1810. Charles Wesley's widow, Sarah, one of his two sons, also called Charles, and his daughter, Sally, lived together nearby and were 'class members'.
Today, Hinde Street Methodist Church is still a thriving Methodist church. The chapel building is the second on the site, dating from 1887, and the most impressive of the designs of Weslyan Methodist architect, James Weir.
The interior is very attractive, in a traditionally Methodist style with a gallery around three sides and a high pulpit, and contains many important memorial tablets to early Methodists, such as Adam Clarke and Mark Guy Pearse.
The linked adjacent building, 19 Thayer Street, was rebuilt in 1980 behind the 19th century façade and now houses the West London Mission. Hugh Price Hughes Lectures given annually.
Worship services
10am traditional (1936 Order) Holy Communion; 11am Morning Worship, including Junior Church and Crèche, and followed by lunch on 4th Sunday of month; 6.30pm reflective Evening Worship (usually for smaller group of younger congregation)
Also nearby
Plaque on the King’s Head public house, Wheatley (formerly Great Chesterfield) Street commemorates the London house where Charles Wesley lived and died. Charles Wesley Memorial and Garden, Marylebone High Street, London, commemorates where Charles and members of his family are buried.