The Northgate Hall is the home of Oxpres, the Oxford Presbyterian Church. [1] Situated at the 18 St Michael's Street, Oxford, England, the building is owned by Oxford City Council.
It was built in 1870–71 as a United Methodist Free Church chapel and schools to the designs of J. C. Curtis. Until the twentieth century it was confusingly described as being in New Inn Hall Street, as what is now St Michael's Street was then known as New Inn Hall Street East. It is a Grade II Listed Building. [2]
The following report in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 15 October 1870 describes the new building:
METHODIST FREE CHURCH, NEW INN HALL STREET [now St Michael's Street].
The congregation at present assembling in the Old Quaker's Chapel have a new Chapel in course of erection in New Inn Hall-street. The site is on that portion of the old city walls whereon stables were lately built, and in digging for the foundation the workmen came upon one of the bastions in a state of perfect preservation, but part of it had to be removed for the new erection. The building will be in the Grecian Doric style of architecture, from the designs of Mr. J. C. Curtis, Mr. Dover being entrusted with the contract. It is to be 52 feet in length and 48 feet in breadth, comprising two storeys, on the basement being the schools, and above the chapel, with the chapel-keeper's residence and other necessary offices. The chapel will accommodate about 500 people, and the contractor anticipates finishing the work before March next, although we believe the stipulated time is the last day in January. The site is held on a lease from the Corporation for 75 years, and the total cost, inclusive of the lease, is estimated at £1500.
It was renamed the Northgate Hall in the late 1920s. Following Methodist Union in 1932 the building was no longer needed by the Methodists as the Wesley Memorial Church was only about 100 m away.
From 1933 until the summer of 1989 the Northgate Hall served as the base for the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU).
In 1991 Sir Ian McKellen opened the Oxford Lesbian and Gay Community Centre at the Northgate Hall, and it remained here until 2004. Also from 1991 it was the home of the Gatehouse, a drop-in centre for homeless people set up by churches in the centre of Oxford. In 2001, it suffered damage from a fire. [3]
The Gatehouse remained in part of the building, but in January 2011 the City Council issued a statement that they were giving it notice to move out, [4] citing financial pressures and the fact that the building was underoccupied as users of other parts of the building had left. [5] Gatehouse moved to new premises in 2012. [6]
From 2013 to 2020 the former hall was occupied by the Bill's Oxford restaurant.
The lease of the whole building was sold in 2022, and in November that year a planning application was approved for change of use from a restaurant back to its original function as a chapel and church hall. [7] [8] It is now the home of Oxford Presbyterian Church, a congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales. [9]
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662. Its headquarters is Essex Hall in central London, on the site of the first avowedly Unitarian chapel in England, set up in 1774.
Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between Stephen of England and Empress Matilda, and again during the English Civil War when the Cavaliers lifted the siege at the Battle of Roundway Down and the Parliamentarian Army of the West under Sir William Waller was routed. Devizes remained under Royalist control until 1645, when Oliver Cromwell attacked and forced the Royalists to surrender. The castle was destroyed in 1648 on the orders of Parliament, and today little remains of it.
Bridewell Palace in London was built as a residence of King Henry VIII and was one of his homes early in his reign for eight years. Given to the City of London Corporation by his son King Edward VI in 1553 as Bridewell Hospital for use as an orphanage and place of correction for wayward women, Bridewell later became the first prison/poorhouse to have an appointed doctor.
Wavell Heights is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Wavell Heights had a population of 10,336 people.
New Inn Hall Street is a street in central Oxford, England, and is one of Oxford's oldest streets. It is a shopping street running north–south parallel and to the west of Cornmarket Street, with George Street to the north and Bonn Square at the west end of Queen Street to the south. St Michael's Street leads off the street to the east near the northern end. Shoe Lane to the east leads to the Clarendon Centre, a modern shopping centre.
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The Surrey Chapel (1783–1881) was an independent Methodist and Congregational church established in Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London on 8 June 1783 by the Rev. Rowland Hill. His work was continued in 1833 by the Congregational pastor Rev. James Sherman, and in 1854 by Rev. Newman Hall. The chapel's design attracted great interest, being circular in plan with a domed roof. When built it was set in open fields, but within a few years it became a new industrial area with a vast population characterised by great poverty amidst pockets of wealth. Recently the site itself has been redeveloped as an office block, and Southwark Underground Station has been built opposite.
Warren Howard Hayes (1847–1899) was a leading designer of churches in the United States and Canada during the late 19th century. Hayes' work holds a significant place in its association with the "Social Gospel" movement. He is credited with some of the earliest use of the "diagonal auditorium" plan and the vast majority of his churches uncovered to date are centered on the diagonal auditorium design with fan shaped pew arrangements and, to assure excellent acoustics, the seating sloping toward the pulpit and domed ceilings. As noted at the opening of the Rockville Ct. Congregational Church:
The acoustic properties of the auditorium are something wonderful. The pastor says he never before spoke in church or hall which can compare with it in this respect. There are yet to be added a protected desk light for the pulpit and a shaded reflector for the organ. The seating capacity of the auditorium is 600, of the gallery 300, of the chapel 300. This capacity can be extended by placing chairs in vacant spaces without obstructing any aisles from 100 to 200 more. —Warren H. Hayes of Minneapolis.
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The Old Jewry Meeting-house was a meeting-house for an English Presbyterian congregation, built around 1701, in the Old Jewry, a small street in the centre of the City of London. Its first minister was John Shower. In 1808 new premises were built in Jewin Street.
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Ashgrove Uniting Church is a heritage-listed former church at 24–30 Ashgrove Avenue, Ashgrove, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Established in 1962 as the Ashgrove Methodist Church, the church is also known as The Grove Uniting Church. It was designed by James Gibson of Cross and Bain. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 June 2021.
Vale Royal Methodist Church, also historically Vale Royal Chapel and Vale Royal Wesleyan Methodist Church, was a Methodist Church of Great Britain parish church in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. It was opened in 1873 and stopped being used as a church on Easter 2015. It was later renovated to become a gym.