Church Street Wesleyan Methodist Church Luton

Church Street Wesleyan Methodist church on a map of 1901

Church Street Wesleyan Methodist chapel was registered with the Archdeaconry of Bedford on 12th or 14th June 1798 by Joseph Harper, Thomas Spilsbury, George Spilsbury, William Davis and James Cowdale [ABN1/2, ABN2/86]. It was registered on the same day as a Methodist meeting in Leagrave and these were the first two registrations of Methodist meetings in Luton.

The chapel had been built in 1778 by a man named William Cole, a friend of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, at his own expense. The chapel was almost opposite Saint Mary’s church, which may seem provocative, but the Anglican curate Luton, Coriolanus Coplestone was a supporter of John Wesley. the founder of Methodism preached in the new chapel in the year it was built. He also preached there in 1784 and 1785.

A deed of 1807 [MB659] recites one of 1st and 2nd April 1779 when William Cole conveyed two cottages in Church Street and “a house or building lately erected and built by the said William Cole in the yard belonging to the said two cottages as and for a preaching house for which purpose it had been and was then used” to John Duples, Charles Greenwood, William Cowland, Charles Wheeler and John Folgham as trustees for Cole to allow him to use the rent from the properties for his life and, after his death, for his wife Elizabeth. After their deaths the rents were to go to Ann Cooper and her husband Tomkinson Cooper, and, after their deaths to John Wesley, so that he “might in the house created for the purpose preach and expound God’s Holy Word”. In other words the rent was to pay for a preacher.

Methodism in Luton grew quickly and in 1808 a new Luton Circuit was instituted. Before this Luton had been part of the Bedford Circuit. On Sunday 30th March 1851 a census of all churches, chapels and preaching-houses of every denomination was undertaken in England and Wales. The local results were published by Bedfordshire Historical Records Society in 1975 as Volume 54, edited by D. W. Bushby. The return for the “Old Wesleyan Chapel” was compiled by trustee John Walters and was as follows:

• 130 free seats, 120 other seats, standing room for 50;
• General congregation in the morning – 90 with 200 Sunday scholars;
• General congregation in the evening – 48.

Edwin Welch researched the history of registrations in Bedfordshire for Bedfordshire Historical Records Society Volume 75 Bedfordshire Chapels and Meeting Houses [published in 1996] and found that the chapel was registered again on 6th February 1854 by Wright Shovelton, the superintendent minister.

The chapel closed in 1916 and was, sadly, demolished in 1923 and a Freemasons’ Masonic Hall built on the site. The building is, att he time of writing [2012] a Pizza Express restaurant. The sale of the church raised £374/15/3 and was given to the building fund of Saint Margaret’s Methodist Church in Montrose Avenue.

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service has the following records relating to Church Street Wesleyan Methodist church:

• MB659: conveyance of the property: 1807;
• MB660a: conveyance to new trustees: 1828;
• MB660b: certificate of registration as a place of worship: 1854;
• MB661: letter regarding missing deeds: 1864;
• MB517: endowment for a preacher: 1873-1917;
• MB662: appointment of new trustees: 1896;
• MB663: appointment of new trustees: 1908.

Church Street Wesleyan chapel [MB1694]