Catalogue description Gateshead Methodist Central Hall

Methodist Central Hall, Gateshead

• Gateshead, South Tyneside
• Gateshead, Tyne and Wear

In 1812, when Gateshead Wesleyan Methodist Circuit was formed, services in Gateshead took place at Methuen's long room in the Duke of Cumberland Inn. Three years later in 1815 a chapel was built in High Street and it is here that the origins of Central Hall lie. A gallery was added to the chapel in 1817 and in 1832 a Sunday School was erected in Ellison Square. In 1848 this became used as a Wesleyan Day School for Girls and in the same year a Day School for Boys was established in High Street. In the late 1850s the society decided to move. In 1861 the High Street chapel was sold to the United Free Methodists and a new chapel was built in High West Street. New school premises were opened in High West Street in January 1863 and continued as a Wesleyan institution until they were purchased by Gateshead Education Committee in the early Twentieth Century. In 1875 Gateshead Wesleyan Methodist Circuit was divided into the Gateshead (High West Street) and the Gateshead (Bensham Road) Circuits. The Chapel was head of the High West Street Circuit. In 1914 the chapel premises were extended and a Sunday School block added. In 1933, following Methodist Union, the chapel was altered, extended and renamed Central Hall. It was removed from the High West Street Circuit in order to create an independent Church and Circuit known as 'Gateshead Central Mission'. Central Hall was officially opened on 18 October 1933. In 1961 Central Hall gave up its status as an independent Mission church and joined the newly-formed Gateshead South West Circuit. The Church closed in 1980 and the premises were sold to Gateshead Council. Members of the society appear to have transferred to Whitehall Road Church and Wesley Memorial Church, Low Fell.

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