Description

LINCOLN

SK9770NW HIGH STREET
1941-1/14/461 (West side)
Central Methodist Church

GV II

Formerly known as: Portland Place Methodist Church HIGH
STREET.
Methodist church and adjoining Sunday school, theatre and
meeting rooms. 1905, by Howdill & Sons of Leeds. Internal
alterations 1968. Red brick with ashlar dressings, and slate
roofs topped with pyramid-roofed ventilators. Baroque Revival
style.
EXTERIOR: plinth, rusticated ground floor and angle pilasters,
dentilled cornices and pediment. 2 storeys, 5 x 5 bays.
Recessed centre has 3 round arched doorways with double
keystones and mid C20 doors and glazing. In the spandrels, 2
draped oval cartouches with inscriptions. Above, 3 windows on
a sill band, divided by Ionic columns. The larger central
window is flanked by double columns, and has voussoirs, dated
1905, breaking into the pediment above. On either side, a
smaller window with keystone and shaped lintel. In the
pediment, a lunette with voussoirs.
To left, a square bell tower, 2 stages, topped with an
octagonal turret, spherical lead dome and finial. Ground floor
doorway with voussoirs, and a single window on the left
return. Above, a moulded round arched window with keystone,
and at the head of each side panel, a bow fronted balcony with
iron balustrade. Turret has 4 louvred openings with pediments
and keystones, and 4 volute supports flanked by Ionic columns.
To right, a smaller square tower, 2 stages, with similar
fenestration. Ramped coped parapet with octagonal finials on
pedestals. Battered square lead turret with a louvred opening
on each side, topped with a square lead dome.
Returns have on each floor 5 metal framed windows, 2 and 4
lights, with leaded glazing.
Rear cross wing, containing Sunday school and theatre, has
shaped coped gables and large round arched windows to north.
INTERIOR largely original, with elliptical arched boarded
ceiling and panelled ribs, and patterned stained glass
windows. Panelled horseshoe-shaped gallery with round
cast-iron columns. The upper tier has Ionic columns and
elliptical arches with keystones.
At the front, a wooden pulpit, dais and rail, mainly mid C20,
and above, behind the choir gallery, a mid C20 wooden screen.
On either side, on each floor, single doors. At the rear,

double doors, and above, 3 windows flanked by single doors.
Fittings include the original benches, curved on the lower
floor, all with shaped ends.
Entrance lobby remodelled and refitted mid C20.
Sunday school wing has an entrance lobby and stairwell with a
cross beam carried on Ionic columns and pilasters. Wooden
pedestals flanked by short wooden balustrades. Concrete
cantilever open well staircase with cast-iron balustrade.
First floor theatre has a cross beam ceiling with a blind
clerestory on wooden posts.
(Buildings of England : Lincolnshire: Pevsner N: Lincolnshire:
London: 1989-: 502).

Listing NGR: SK9729070545

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Central Methodist Church at Wikipedia
• Central Methodist Church official website
• Wikidata Q26668104

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version