Hove Methodist Church

Hove Methodist Church
The front of the church viewed from the south
50°49′58″N 0°10′45″W / 50.8328°N 0.1792°W / 50.8328; -0.1792Coordinates: 50°49′58″N 0°10′45″W / 50.8328°N 0.1792°W / 50.8328; -0.1792
Location	Portland Road, Hove, Brighton and Hove BN3 5DR
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Methodist Church of Great Britain Wesleyan Methodist (historically)
Website	www.hovemethodistchurch.co.uk/
History
Former name(s)	Wesleyan Church, Portland Road Methodist Church
Founded	June 3, 1896 (1896-06-03)
Consecrated	17 December 1896
Architecture
Status	Church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II listed
Designated	2 November 1992
Architect(s)	John Wills
Style	Romanesque Revival
Completed	1896
Construction cost	£4,700 (£490,000 in 2017)
Specifications
Capacity	600
Materials	Red brick, stone
Administration
Circuit	Brighton and Hove
District	South East England

Hove Methodist Church is one of six extant Methodist churches in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Founded on a site on Portland Road, one of Hove's main roads, in the late 19th century by a long-established Wesleyan community, it was extended in the 1960s and is now a focus for various social activities as well as worship. The red-brick building has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage in view of its architectural importance.

Hove was added to the Methodist circuit covering the neighbouring town of Brighton and the county town of Lewes in 1808, and by the next year 13 members were recorded as living in Hove. After several decades of meeting in houses and other buildings, the growing community decided to found their own church in the 1880s. After one proposed site had to be abandoned because of a lack of money, in 1883 they bought a plot of land on the north side of Portland Road—a main east–west route running from Hove through Aldrington to Portslade. The site cost £400 (equivalent to £36,300 in 2017). A second-hand temporary building made of iron was erected, but it had to be taken down in 1892; the congregation, who were Wesleyans, had to share another Methodist church in Hove with its Primitive Methodist community until they were able to build a permanent structure.

Architect John Wills was commissioned to design a new church in 1895. Eight years earlier he had designed the Holland Road Baptist Church, also in Hove. His plans were approved in 1896, and the church was founded on 3 June of that year by a group of 20 members, each of whom laid a stone in the floor or below the windows. The official opening date was 17 December 1896. The £4,700 cost of construction was paid off within ten years.

Girls' Brigade and Boys' Brigade companies were formed early in the church's history, and from the 1930s the church bought several adjacent buildings to provide more room for social activities. An extension, running north along St Patrick's Road, was opened at a cost of £25,000 in 1965. The church itself was altered externally in 1992, when the distinctive former double staircase leading to the entrance was demolished and a two-storey tower of multicoloured glass was added on the Portland Road façade. A new organ was bought in 1932 to replace a second-hand model from St Michael's Church, Brighton.