Patrick Comerford
I regularly stop in Aylesbury when I am changing buses between Buckingham or Stony Stratford and Oxford, and enjoy strolling through the county town of Buckinghamshire, taking in its churches, buildings and streets, even stopping for lunch.
One of the churches I visited recently is the Methodist Church on Buckingham Street, designed by James Weir in 1893 and described dismissively by the architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner as being built in a ‘terrible Italianate style’.
Methodism in Aylesbury began with early meetings in the late 1700s, with licenses granted for private homes, including John Hester’s home at Walton House and John Seamons’s house in Weedon.
Evening services in the town of Aylesbury itself began in 1789, a room in the house of Mrs Martha King in Cambridge Street was registered as a place of worship in November 1802, and a formal Methodist society was formed by 1805, with about 25 members.
Aylesbury was in the Oxford Circuit until 1810, when the Whitchurch Circuit was formed, with a second preacher appointed to it two years later. The Wesleyan Methodists met in rented rooms in Castle Street, Aylesbury, from 1816 and Aylesbury replaced Whitchurch as the circuit church in 1821.
But the rooms in Castle Street remained in use until 1839, when what was described as 'a commodious chapel and schoolroom' was built on a site leased from the Duke of Buckingham in the Friarage Passage, which ran through the site of a 14th century friary.
A new chapel opened in Buckingham Street in 1893, replacing the chapel in Friarage Passage. The new chapel was designed by James Weir (1845-1905), a Methodist architect who mainly designed Wesleyan Methodist churches in London and the south-east.
Weir was articled to the architect George Devey from 1859 to 1864, and remained as an assistant of Devey for a further five years. He then became an assistant to Richard Norman Shaw.
Weir set up his own independent practice in 1873, and became of Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1882. At the start of his independent career in 1873, Weir was commissioned to design a new Wesleyan Church in Clapham. He went on to design 28 more chapels in London and the south-east.
Most of Weir’s chapels were in the Gothic style, but a few, such as Hinde Street Methodist Church in Marylebone, were in the classical style. Towards the end of his life, Weir designed Victoria Central Hall in Deptford (1903) and Stepney Central Hall (1907).
For many years, Weir was also the architect to the Victoria Chambers Company in Westminster, where he had his offices, and to the Westinghouse Brake Company in King’s Cross, London.
Perhaps Pevsner’s description of Weir’s church in Aylesbury as having a ‘terrible Italianate style’ is a little harsh, as the church also displays not only Italianate features but also some Byzantine and Romanesque features.
The Buckingham Street church underwent major refurbishment in 2009 and reopened as the Aylesbury Methodist Church and Centre, and is now the hub of the Vale of Aylesbury Methodist Circuit. It is an active, inclusive town centre church and the largest in the Vale of Aylesbury Circuit, with extensive meeting venues and charity work, hosting many community and charitable groups.
As for the former Methodist chapel in Friarage Passage, it was later used as the Comrades (Ex-Services) Club before being demolished as part of the shopping centre development.
Aylesbury also had a Primitive Methodist Chapel in New Street, reflecting the old split in Methodism between ‘Prims’ and Wesleyans. It stood opposite the former Royal Bucks Hospital, and remained until the 1960s.
• The Revd Richard Atkinson is the minister at Aylesbury Methodist Church. Sunday services and Sunday school are at 10:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment