Oxford, New Inn Hall Street, Wesley Memorial Wesleyan Church: the architectural drawings

The current church was designed in 1875 and opened in October 1878. Before work commenced a plan and drawing were published in the architectural press, and the Wesleyan Chapel Committee published another when the work was completed. The plan shows where the earlier church, as described on another page, stood.

The design was described in The Building News as follows:

“This chapel is about to be built at Oxford as a memorial of the Rev. John Wesley, who was a Fellow of Lincoln College there. The design was selected in a limited competition last summer, and is the work of Mr. Charles Bell, architect, 4 Union-Court City. It is intended to occupy a good position in front of the old chapel in New Inn Hall-street, and the tower and spire are so placed as to be seen from the High-Street. Sittings will be provide for 600 on ground plan and 250 in side galleries. There are entrances on either side of these, and a spacious vestibule for the body of the chapel. The roof will be open, carried by stone arches resting on polished Aberdeen red and grey granite shafts, 14 in. in diameter, which will be an agreeable change from the ordinary iron columns so frequently used. The galleries will also be kept with the line of the columns, so as not to interfere with their effect. The building will be faced with local Gibraltar stone, with Bath stone dressings. The tower and spire will be together 130 ft. in height. The contract has been taken by Messrs. Symm and Co., builders, of Oxford at £6000, and it is proposed to commence the work early in the spring.”

References: The Twenty-fourth annual report of the Wesleyan Chapel Committee, 1878 Frontispiece

The Building News 18th February 1876, p168