Derby London Road Methodist New Connexion Chapel, Derbyshire

Derby, London Road Methodist New Connexion Chapel was built in 1819 as a New Jerusalem Temple. It had a stone front with a portico in the Ionic order and seats about 800. It was bought by the New Connexion for about £1500 in 1834. In 1894-5 new schools were about to be built behind the chapel.

By 1901 £4000 had been spent on the original construction and the subsequent enlargement of the chapel and a school. A further £290 had been spent on purchasing an organ. The chapel seated 400 and the school 300.

The chapel appears to have been closed by 1913. The site is now occupied by a shopping centre.

The plan of 1880-2 shows that the chapel was almost square with an apse opposite the entrance. It was reached by a flight of steps leading to a colonnaded porch. The absence of a separate school building and the fact that the chapel was raised suggests that the school was below the chapel.

Sources

A Digest of the Minutes, Institutions, Polity, Doctrines, Ordinances and Literature of the Methodist New Connexion, by William Baggally, p 148, Derby Circuit

Methodist New Connexion: Returns of Trust Estates as presented in Special Schedules, January 1901 Nottingham District, Derby Circuit

OS 1:500 plan of Derby 1880-2 sheet L13.2 and OS 25 inch map 1913/4 L13. ‘Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland National Library of Scotland – Map Images (nls.uk) ‘

Bulmer’s directory of Derbyshire, 1894-5, p. 59

Site visit 29.10.2022