Wesley Memorial Church is a Methodist church in central Oxford, England. John and Charles Wesley studied in Oxford, and the congregation was founded in 1783.[2] The present church building was completed in 1878.[1] The building is now a focus for various social activities as well as Christian worship.
History
Oxford's first Methodist meeting house was a building on the east side of New Inn Hall Street. It is now numbered 32–34 and is part of Brasenose College. A plaque on the wall commemorates the fact that John Wesley preached there on 4 July 1783.
The congregation later moved to a second building on the west side of the street. This has since been sold and the site has been incorporated into St Peter's College.
The present Gothic Revival building was started in 1877 and opened in October 1878.[2] The architect Charles Bell designed it in a revival of Decorated Gothic.[1] The building contractor was Joshua Symm. Henry Frith of Gloucester carved the capitals of the columns, which portray twelve different kinds of English plants.[3]
Gallery
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The east front by night, showing the Gothic Revival tracery of the east window -
Church tower, pictured from St Michael's Street
References
- ^ a b c d Sherwood & Pevsner 1974, p. 299.
- ^ a b c Hibbert 1988, p. 495.
- ^ "A history of Wesley Memorial". Oxford: Wesley Memorial Church. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
Sources
- Hibbert, Christopher, ed. (1988). "Wesley Memorial Methodist Church". The Encyclopaedia of Oxford. London: Macmillan. p. 495. ISBN 0-333-39917-X.
- Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0 14 071045 0.
External links