286, formerly Swaythling Methodist Church, is a grade II listed gurdwara and former church building in Swaythling, Southampton. The building was owned and managed by Southampton Methodist Circuit with City Life Church providing assistance with the day-to-day operations. Until the building was sold in 2021, Swaythling Methodist Church continued to meet on the premises in the Nona Bell Centre as a community of St James Road Methodist Church in Shirley, having closed as an official Methodist Church in 2013.
Building
The building includes a number of halls and smaller rooms in addition to the main auditorium, as well as a manse and some workshops.[1] Designed by Herbert Collins in a neo-Georgian style and built in 1932, following his construction of many houses in the surrounding area, with the remit "I have built the houses, now build a place for the people to go".[citation needed] The buildings were constructed in partnership with J. Arthur Rank with full cinema facilities. The projector room is still present.[1] The main auditorium is octagonal with a balcony over the entrance porch; the balcony is accessible via two stair towers on the north face. Attached to the south side is a wing containing other halls and rooms. Separate buildings on the west of the site contain some workshops and the manse.[1] The roof of the main hall is shallowly domed and clad in copper, topped by a copper-clad cupola.[1]
In April 2016,[2] the Methodist Council approved the transfer of the building, then valued at £900,000 to City Life Church under the provisions of "Model Trust 20" - a Methodist Church policy that allows buildings to be sold below their value if it enables Christian worship to continue on the premises. The transfer - technically a sale at nil value - was justified on the basis of the significant maintenance costs, with an estimate that over £900,000 worth of repairs to the building were needed.[3]
However, in April 2018[4] the Council noted that "it has not been possible to find an acceptable form of wording for the requirements for a trust of sale" This was partly because Model Trust 20 included a "reverter" clause which meant that, should a building be subsequently sold by the new owner, net proceeds of that sale should be given to the Methodist Church. The Council therefore adopted a new version of Model Trust 20 that altered these terms.[5]
In 2021, the Methodist Church again altered the Model Trust 20 policy, introducing clause 6: "Once the Council has approved the ‘in principle’ decision to sell for less than best price, completion of the sale must take place within three years from that point."[6] With the under-value sale having been approved in 2016 this meant that the term for selling 286 had expired and it was placed for sale on the open market with a guide price of £1.2 million; it was sold to a Sikh group who then launched a £50,000 renovation plan, converting the building into a Gurdwara.[7]
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