Methodist Central Hall Westminster

1902

Wesleyan Methodist Conference approve purchase of the site from the Royal Aquarium

1903

Royal Aquarium bought for £300,000 in January. Celebratory service in the Aquarium on 2nd February 1903.  

1904

Competition to design the building - opened in June; 132 designs received by September

1905

Sir Aston Webb RA, the competition adjudicator advises the trustees in January to short list 9 designs and in May the design submitted by Lanchester & Rickards is accepted

1908

Royal Aquarium demolished and site excavated to 17 feet below street level

1909

Construction begins

1912

3rd October    Opening of Central Hall.  Rev’d John E Wakerley appointed minister (from 1911) and Arthur Meale FRCO, organist.  From then until 1932 Arthur Meale organised popular Saturday night concerts

1914

Rev Dinsdale T Young appointed minister

1921

(and other dates)   World Methodist Conference (which first met in 1881). Six Point Group and other groups seeking equal rights and opportunities for women met here (London Society for Women’s Service; Equal Franchise Demonstration; National Council of Women’s Institutes and National Council of Women of Great Britain among others).  From 1921 to 1951 the Glasgow Orpheus Choir held London concerts in the Great Hall with Sir Hugh Roberton

1922

October      Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club to plan an attempt to climb Mount Everest (there were attempts in 1921, 1922 and 1924)

1923 - 1953

Sir Robert Mayer held his concerts for children here for 30 years before moving them to the newly built Royal Festival Hall (Great Hall).  The first was conducted by Sir Adrian Boult and then from 1924 the conductor for many years was Sir Malcolm Sargent.  Queen Mary came to part of a concert in 1928 entering and leaving by the back door.  TRH Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret also attended the concerts

1924

Sir Edward Elgar conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra at  a concert here the day after being appointed Master of the Queen’s Musick (Great Hall).

1929

 & onwards    Ernest Read’s children’s concerts began with the London Junior Orchestra; also Free Church Choir Union concerts (often associated with the Crystal and Alexandra Palaces).

1930

Columbia Records make a recording in the Great Hall of Clara Butt singing Land of Hope and Glory.  The Great Hall is used by Sir Adrian Boult to rehearse the BBC Symphony Orchestra

1931

Mahatma Ghandi gave a talk to the Temperance League (Lecture Hall)  

1932

Uniting Conference of the newly United Methodist Church, 20th to 24th September (Great Hall) for the union of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church.  

1934

Council of Christian Pacifist Groups Conference  attended by an estimated 5000 people in November.  

1935 

Council of Action for Peace and Reconstruction inaugural meeting, 1st July (Great Hall).  Led by Lloyd George as part of his British New Deal initiative.  Lord Robert Cecil, Harold Macmillan and George Lansbury were present.  The Archbishop of Canterbury warned off the Anglican bishops but other denominations attended led by Rev’d Dr. Scott Lidgett.

1936 - 1950

Church Assembly of the Church of England (Anglicans) meets here (Great Hall)

1937 - 2003

London Emmanuel Choir concerts.  Other regular concerts were held here including some conducted by Edward Heath

1938

Rev Dr F Luke Wiseman appointed minister.  

1939

Rev William E Sangster preaches his first sermon on taking up his appointment at Central Hall and during the service announces that war has been declared (the Prime Minister’s broadcast was at 11.15 on Sunday 3rd September 1939)

1939 - 1945

Lower level of the building used as an air raid shelter for 2000 people.  

1940

First London County Council concert conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, 30th August.  The concert was interrupted by an air raid, marking the end of the so-called phoney war.

1940s

Meetings relating to the formation of the Free French forces by General Charles de Gaulle.  

1942 & 1943

Labour Party Conferences

1945

2nd June   Foundation meeting of the Methodist Association of Youth Clubs.  Also the site of many MAYC rallies, meetings and London Weekends

1946

Inaugural meeting of the United Nations in January and February; first meetings of the General Assembly commenced on 10th January (Great Hall) and of the Security Council on 17th January (Lib). Committees met at Church House.  Church worships first at the Victoria Palace and then at the London Coliseum.
Delegates and others present included:
Andrei Vykinsky and Andrei Gromyko (USSR), Eleanor Roosevelt, John Foster Dulles and Adlai Stevenson (USA), Jan Masaryk (Czechoslovakia), Henri Spaak (Belgium), Trygvie Lie (Norway, first Secretary-General), Perez de Cuellar (Peru) and Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Philip Noel-Baker, Ellen Wilkinson and Sir Hartley Shawcross (UK)
On The 28th May Clement Attlee and Dr Sangster unveiled the commemorative plaque in Tothill Street

1949

October    HRH Princess Elizabeth attends a meeting of the Mother’s Union to accept a wedding gift and makes a controversial speech on family values

1950

17th April    Christian Action held its first main conference.  Christian Action held many meetings at Central Hall over the years

1955

September     Rev Derrick A Greeves appointed minister; William Sangster moves to Home Missions Department based in the building
Mass rally to launch the National Campaign Against Capital Punishment, 10 November (Great Hall and other rooms with an overflow meeting at Church House chaired by Diana Collins). Speakers included Gilbert Harding (TV personality) Arthur Koestler, Victor Gollancz, Gerald Gardiner, J.B.Priestley, Montgomery Hyde MP and Lord Pakenham

1956

April     Press conference during 10 visit to the UK by Andrei Gromyko, Nikita Krushchev and Marshal Bulganin (Great Hall)

1958

17th February     Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament launched at conference in the Great Hall overflowing into other rooms.  Attendees included Canon John Collins (of St Paul’s Cathedral – the meeting to plan the creation of CND in January took place in his flat in Amen Court), J.B. Priestley, Bertrand Russell.  At the conclusion of the meeting an unplanned march on Downing Street was stopped by police with dogs.  The meeting launched the Aldermaston March.   

1960s

& onwards   Movements to counter apartheid in South Africa held meeting in the Great Hall.  Speakers included Jawaharlal Nehru, Harold Wilson[* ] Canon Collins and Rev Donald Soper.  

1961

October     “Colour Prejudice Must Go” Christian Action meeting (Great Hall) addressed by Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Resha and Stuart Hall

1964

September    Rev Maurice Barnett appointed minister    

1966

Theft of the World Cup from the Library where it was the centre piece of a stamp exhibition (it was retrieved a few day later with the help of a dog called Pickles!)

1967

Autumn     Joint meeting of Anti Apartheid Movement, Movement for Colonial Freedom and the United Nations Association

1968 

12th June   First public performance of the original version of  “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”  by Andrew Lloyd-Webber & Tim Rice

1969 - 1970

Rebuilding and enlargement of the Hill organ by Rushworth & Draper – Dr W. S. Lloyd-Webber Director of Music & organist (1958-1982)

1969

March     Launch of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Trust attended by Coretta Scott King and Canon Collins

1972

5th October    Uniting Assemblies of the United Reform Church (Great Hall) followed by a service in Westminster Abbey,

1978

13th – 16th December     London Emmanuel Choir Christmas Concerts,

1979

World Disarmament Campaign Launch

1980

Rev Irvonwy Morgan appointed minister

1981

Rev R John Tudor appointed minister

1982

1st March    First annual Daffodil Day Rally
Celebration of the 50th anniversary of Methodist Union in presence of TRH the Duke and Duchess of York

1984

His Holiness the Dalai Lama addresses a meeting during his visit at the invitation of the Dean of Westminster

1985

18th December     Visit of TRH the Prince and Princess of Wales attending a Royal Christmas Concert,

1988 

26th January   Thanksgiving ceremony for the life of Jacqueline Du Pre, virtuoso cellist

1990

50^th anniversary of Sunday Half Hour on BBC radio (Great Hall)

1991

Basil Hume, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster attended.  Winnie Mandela took Nelson Mandela’s place at an event to celebrate his release because he was indisposed

1993

Lecture and question and answer session by Mikhail Gorbachev. Lord (Bernard) Wetherill was in the chair and Sir David Steel, Lord (Geoffrey) Howe and Lord (Dennis) Healey were on the panel for the question and answer session
80th  birthday celebration for Trevor Huddleston on 15th June (Great Hall) attended by a Julius Nyrere, Jay Naidoo, Barbara Castle Mzakhe Mbuli, Desmond Tutu, Adelaide Tambo, Sir Shridath Ramphal with a message read from Harold Wilson

1995

Rev Peter C Graves appointed minister.

1996

10th – 12th January        50th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations

1997

June    Methodist Conference (and other dates)

1998

31st May    United service of thanksgiving for the life of Mother Theresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

2000

July    Visit of President Boris Trajkovski of Macedonia, Methodist preacher and holder of the World Methodist Peace Award

Rev Dr Malcolm W White appointed minister

2001

Rev Martin H Turner appointed minister

2002

Filming of “Calendar Girls”  - released September 2004

1st September   Dedication of the new chapel in the area originally constructed and used (for 90 years) as a bank.

2002 – 2003

 Bloody Sunday Inquiry (The Rt Hon Lord Saville of Newdigate, The Hon Mr William L. Hoyt, The Hon Mr John L. Toohey)

2003

January     Filming of “If Only”-  released in 2004 (Great Hall & Grand Staircase)

12th February   Televised debate on the prospective war in Iraq broadcast from Great Hall.

July    Installation of Bernard Sleigh paintings from Holy Trinity (Methodist) Church, Blackwell (Grand Staircase)

1st November    Signing of an Anglican Methodist Covenant (Great Hall and at Westminster Abbey) in the presence of HM The Queen.

December     “Big Sing” broadcast by the BBC (Great Hall)

2004

28th May    The Dalai Lama gave a lecture on world peace as part of visit to the UK attended by HRH The Prince of Wales (Great Hall)

September    Major refurbishment works begin.

2005

1st January   Share Jesus International Upper Room event rearranged to remember victims of, and the suffering caused by, the Asian Tsunami (tidal wave caused by a submarine earthquake)
(Library and Lecture Hall)