History
Hove was added to the Methodist circuit covering the neighbouring town of Brighton and the county town of Lewes in 1808, and by the next year 13 members were recorded as living in Hove. After several decades of meeting in houses and other buildings, the growing community decided to found their own church in the 1880s. After one proposed site had to be abandoned because of a lack of money, in 1883 they bought a plot of land [2] on the north side of Portland Road—a main east–west route running from Hove through Aldrington to Portslade. The site cost £400 (equivalent to £42,900 in 2024). [1] A second-hand temporary building made of iron was erected, but it had to be taken down in 1892; the congregation, who were Wesleyans, had to share another Methodist church in Hove with its Primitive Methodist community until they were able to build a permanent structure. [2]
Architect John Wills was commissioned to design a new church in 1895. [3] Eight years earlier he had designed the Holland Road Baptist Church, also in Hove. [4] His plans were approved in 1896, and the church was founded on 3 June of that year by a group of 20 members, each of whom laid a stone in the floor or below the windows. The official opening date was 17 December 1896. The £4,700 cost of construction was paid off within ten years. [2]
Girls' Brigade and Boys' Brigade companies were formed early in the church's history, and from the 1930s the church bought several adjacent buildings to provide more room for social activities. An extension, running north along St Patrick's Road, was opened at a cost of £25,000 in 1965. [5] The church itself was altered externally in 1992, when the distinctive former double staircase leading to the entrance [2] was demolished and a two-storey tower of multicoloured glass was added on the Portland Road façade. [5] A new organ was bought in 1932 to replace a second-hand model from St Michael's Church, Brighton. [5]
The church has had nearly thirty ministers during its existence, [5] some of whom achieved importance beyond the local area. Robert Bond, the first minister, served from 1896 until 1899 and later served on the Free Church Federation, having become influential in the wider Methodist community. [2] Ernest Kirtlan, known for his distinctive preaching style during his four-year incumbency from 1908—his loud voice sometimes sent Communion cruets falling from the altar to the floor—was also an expert on medieval English literature. [2]
The church is licensed for worship in accordance with the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 and has the registration number 35785. [6]
The church today
Hove Methodist Church was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 2 November 1992. [3] It is one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove. [8]
The church is part of the Brighton and Hove Circuit of Methodist churches, which includes the city's five other churches: one in Patcham, one in Stanford Avenue near Preston Park, one in Hollingbury, one in Woodingdean and the Dorset Gardens Methodist Church in Kemptown. [9] [10] It is the only remaining place of worship for Methodists in Hove: former churches at Old Shoreham Road, [11] Goldstone Villas [12] and Portslade [12] have closed. In the early 20th century, under its former name of Portland Road Methodist Church, it was in a six-church Wesleyan-following circuit with the Portslade and Kemptown churches, the former church in Bristol Road, Kemptown (now closed) and others in nearby Hurstpierpoint and Southwick. [12]
There are two services on most Sundays, a monthly breakfast meeting and regular prayer services. [13] Other social activities, Bible study groups and services take place during the week. [14]
Hove is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove.
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St Peter's Church is a Roman Catholic church in the Aldrington area of Hove, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is one of three Roman Catholic churches in Hove and one of eleven in the wider city area. Built between 1912 and 1915 in a red-brick Romanesque style, its tall campanile forms a local landmark. It has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage in view of its architectural importance.
St Mary Magdalen's Church is a Roman Catholic church in the Montpelier area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Dedicated to Jesus' companion Mary Magdalene, it is one of six Roman Catholic churches in Brighton and one of eleven in the city area. Built by ecclesiastical architect Gilbert Blount in a 13th-century Gothic style to serve the rapidly expanding residential area on the border of Brighton and Hove, it has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage in view of its architectural importance. An adjacent presbytery and parish hall have been listed separately at Grade II.
Holland Road Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Hove, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1887 to replace a temporary building on the same site, which had in turn superseded the congregation's previous meeting place in a nearby gymnasium, it expanded to take in nearby buildings and is a landmark on Holland Road, a main north–south route in Hove. It is one of ten extant Baptist church buildings in the city, and is the only one to have been listed by English Heritage in view of its architectural importance.
The Church of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic church in Hove, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It is the oldest of Hove's three Roman Catholic churches, and one of eleven in the city area. It has been designated a Grade II Listed building.
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Brighton and Hove, a city on the English Channel coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's seaside resorts. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove, nearby villages such as Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean, and 20th-century estates such as Moulsecoomb and Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a unitary authority and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the 20,430-acre (8,270 ha) geographical area is classed as built up.
Thomas Lainson, FRIBA was a British architect. He is best known for his work in the East Sussex coastal towns of Brighton and Hove, where several of his eclectic range of residential, commercial and religious buildings have been awarded listed status by English Heritage. Working alone or in partnership with two sons as Lainson & Sons, he designed buildings in a wide range of styles, from Neo-Byzantine to High Victorian Gothic; his work is described as having a "solid style, typical of the time".
John Leopold DenmanFRIBA was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and as part of the Denman & Son firm in partnership with his son John Bluet Denman. Described as "the master of ... mid-century Neo-Georgian", Denman was responsible for a range of commercial, civic and religious buildings in Brighton, and pubs and hotels there and elsewhere on the south coast of England on behalf of Brighton's Kemp Town Brewery. He used other architectural styles as well, and was responsible for at least one mansion, several smaller houses, various buildings in cemeteries and crematoria, and alterations to many churches. His work on church restorations has been praised, and he has been called "the leading church architect of his time in Sussex"; he also wrote a book on the ecclesiastical architecture of the county.
The Hounsom Memorial Church is a United Reformed place of worship in Hove in the English city of Brighton and Hove. One of six churches of that denomination in the city, it was built in 1938 for the Congregational Church, which became part of the United Reformed Church in 1972. Its name commemorates William Allin Hounsom, a local man and longstanding member of the Congregational church in central Hove, who had wide-ranging business interests and landholdings across Sussex. The red-brick building, one of many local works by Brighton-based architect John Leopold Denman, is embellished with carvings that have been called "quite startling for a Nonconformist church".
Clayton & Black were a firm of architects and surveyors from Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. In a career spanning the Victorian, Edwardian and interwar eras, they were responsible for designing and constructing an eclectic range of buildings in the growing town of Brighton and its neighbour Hove. Their work encompassed new residential, commercial, industrial and civic buildings, shopping arcades, churches, schools, cinemas and pubs, and alterations to hotels and other buildings. Later reconstituted as Clayton, Black & Daviel, the company designed some churches in the postwar period.
