Westminster Methodist Central Hall

Methodist Central Hall, also known as Central Hall Westminster, is a landmark building in London’s City of Westminster. It serves primarily as a Methodist church and a conference centre but also hosts an art gallery, restaurant, and office spaces. Until 2000, it was the headquarters of the Methodist Church of Great Britain. The building contains 22 rooms for conferences, meetings, and seminars, with the largest space, the Great Hall, seating 2,300 people. It remains a spiritual hub for Methodists and a prominent venue for events and gatherings.

Located at the corner of Tothill Street and Storeys Gate, just off Victoria Street, Methodist Central Hall is positioned near Westminster Abbey, next to the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Erected between 1905 and 1911, the Wesleyan Methodist Twentieth Century Fund funded the building, also called the “Million Guinea Fund,” with the goal of raising one million guineas from one million Methodists. The campaign succeeded, collecting over one million guineas by 1904.

The hall was built to replace the Royal Aquarium, Music Hall, and Imperial Theatre, an entertainment venue that struggled financially from 1876 until it closed in 1903. The Wesleyan Methodists envisioned Central Hall as a multi-purpose space for worship and conferences on religious, social, and scientific matters.

Central Hall has been the site of numerous significant events throughout its history. In 1914, the suffragette movement held meetings there, and parts of the 2015 film *Suffragette* were filmed on location. In 1946, it hosted the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. The congregation temporarily relocated to the Coliseum Theatre during this period. In return for using the hall, the UN Assembly funded repainting the church walls in light blue.

Central Hall has seen many prominent political figures and speakers. It has hosted events featuring Winnie Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Mikhail Gorbachev. In September 1972, the Conservative Monday Club held a controversial meeting in the main hall with the theme “Halt Immigration Now!” The venue was also the site of the first public performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's *Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat* in 1968, in which his father, organist William Lloyd Webber, served as the musical director. That concert also featured performances by Webber’s brother, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, and pianist John Lill.

In 1966, the FIFA World Cup Jules Rimet Trophy was displayed at Central Hall ahead of that year’s tournament in England. The trophy was famously stolen from the hall in March of that year and later found by a dog named Pickles in south London, though the thief was never caught. England went on to win the tournament that summer.

In recent years, Central Hall has continued to host various notable events. In 2017, the FIFA Interactive World Cup final venue was where Spencer Ealing, known as “Gorilla,” defeated Kai Wollin, or “DETO.” Central Hall’s application for an alcohol licence in 2005 stirred some controversy within the Methodist Church, as Methodism has traditionally promoted abstinence. Many argued that the application defied church rules, and objections were raised in writing, but the licence was eventually granted.

The building has also been used for public inquiries into major incidents, such as the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, the sinking of the *Marchioness* pleasure boat, and the Bloody Sunday incident in Northern Ireland.

Methodist Central Hall is a Grade II* listed building designed by Edwin Alfred Rickards of the architectural firm Lanchester, Stewart, and Rickards. It shares stylistic similarities with Cardiff’s City Hall, which the firm also designed. Although clad in an elaborate Baroque style to contrast with Westminster Abbey, the building is notable for its early use of reinforced concrete framing.

The original design in 1904 included two small towers on the east façade, but these were never built, likely due to concerns that they would detract from Nicholas Hawksmoor’s towers at Westminster Abbey, as seen from St. James’s Park. The hall was completed in 1911.

The Great Hall’s domed ceiling is said to be the world's second-largest of its kind. The self-supporting ferro-concrete structure reflects the building’s original purpose as a grand meeting space for large-scale gatherings. Methodist Central Hall was intended to provide a venue for “open-air preaching with the roof on.”