
Wesleyan Chapel, Beverley Road, Hull. (1860)
Opened
January 1862. Built at a cost of £5,900
to the designs of William
Botterill.
An elaborate Gothic pinnacled facade
with richly traceried five-light window. The gable was topped with
a small octagonal turret and spire. It was
built of white Wallingfen bricks with Brodsworth stone
dressings. Seating for 1060. Closed in
1941 and used as a printing works
before being destroyed by fire in 1953.
The front wall with piers and gates
survive. The school and class rooms built in 1865 at rear of
the site are now
used as a Masonic
hall.
The site and buildings were purchased in 1947 by The
Masonic Hall (Kingston-Upon-Hull) Ltd. The founding shareholders were: Kingston,
De la Pole, Wilberforce, and Lord Bolton Lodges
and was ext ended in 1963 to
include the Old Hymerian Lodge. The Wilberforce
Lodge moved to the Beverley Masonic Hall in
1998 and was replaced by the Lodge of St. Andrew
who took up residence in January 2000. These
five Lodges still meet in the building.
A news item from a news magazine in the early fifties
reported :
"MARCH.9th (1953) A
disastrous early morning fire occurred at White & Farrell Ltd.'s print
works on Beverley Road putting 50 employees out of
a job. Only the shell and spires remained of the
building which had opened in 1862 as Beverley Road Wesleyan Church and
played a prominent role in Hull's church
life until its closure in 1941. The congregation had once included some
well-known local business leaders including
the grocer, Wm. Jackson."
The walls and piers still
remain, although considerably rebuilt,
and the space, once graced so elegantly by the Chapel, is now a car park for some 60
vehicles. |