Dorset Gardens Methodist Church
Encyclopedia
The Dorset Gardens Methodist Church is a Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

 church in the Kemptown
Kemptown
Kemptown is a small community running along the King's Cliff to Black Rock in the east of Brighton, East Sussex, England.-History:The area takes its name from Thomas Read Kemp's Kemp Town residential estate of the early 19th Century, but the one-word name now refers to an area larger than the...

 area of the city of Brighton and Hove, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Although it is a modern building—completed in 2003—it is the third Methodist place of worship on the site: it replaced an older, larger church which was in turn a rebuilding of Brighton's first Methodist church. Between them, the churches have played an important part in the history of Methodism in Brighton.

History

On 26 August 1808, Brighton's first Methodist church opened on the west side of Dorset Gardens, a street running northwards from St James's Street—a main route eastwards out of Brighton. The opposite side of Dorset Gardens had been developed with large houses in the 1790s. The church, which followed the Wesleyan
Wesleyanism
Wesleyanism or Wesleyan theology refers, respectively, to either the eponymous movement of Protestant Christians who have historically sought to follow the methods or theology of the eighteenth-century evangelical reformers, John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley, or to the likewise eponymous...

 Methodist doctrine, was built in red brick with rounded windows and a square entrance porch, Three of the four interior sides of the square building were galleried
Balcony
Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...

, and the church's choir occupied one section. In about 1840, a hall, gas lighting, new entrance (leading on to Dorset Gardens itself) and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

 were added. The Minister at the time (1855) did not want the church to have an organ, however, and was not present at the dedication ceremony.

Another red-brick building, somewhat larger and with an Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...

 tower, was designed and constructed by Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

-based architect C. O. Ellison in 1884, with a new organ and electric lighting added in 1894. The brick was set off by terracotta dressings at regular intervals, and the overall style appears to have been influenced by Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

. A large extension was built on the south side in 1929, and it is this part of the site upon which the present church stands. This was opened in April 2003, three years after the 1884 building was demolished, and cost £1.6 million.

Architecture

The new church is built in red brick and concrete with large areas of glass and a mostly tiled exterior; the four-storey interior has many rooms and configurations, and the top floor is partly lit by a glass-faced tower. The design, created by a Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

-based firm, won a local award.

The church today

As well as weekly services and prayer evenings, a wide range of community activities take place weekly or monthly, including exercise classes, Scout
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....

 meetings, Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...

 meetings and the local Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 Des Turner
Des Turner
Desmond Stanley Turner is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Brighton Kemptown from 1997 to 2010.-Early life:...

's monthly constituency surgeries
Surgery (politics)
A political surgery or clinic is a term used to describe a series of one-to-one meetings. A Member of Parliament may have with his or her constituents, at which a constituent may raise issues of local concern...

.
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