Kingsway Hall

The Kingsway Hall, Holborn, London, built in 1912 and demolished in 1998, was the home of the West London Mission (WLM) of the Methodist Church, and eventually became one of the most important recording venues for classical music and film music. Among the prominent Methodists associated with the Kingsway Hall was Donald Soper, who was Superintendent Minister at the West London Mission from 1936 until his retirement in 1978.

Kingsway Hall took its name from the street on to which its main entrance opened. The address was West London Mission, 75 Kingsway, London WC2.

In 1899, the London County Council (LCC) was given the power to proceed with major slum clearance in the area between Holborn and the Strand. The Methodist Church had operated its West London Mission since 1887 occupying a number of rented buildings in Piccadilly, St James' Hall and Princes Hall, and the Strand, Exeter Hall. These venues were steadily reclaimed as sites for new hotels so eventually in 1906 the church found a more permanent home for the Mission at 67 Great Queen Street where there was a chapel. There had been a chapel there since at least 1709 but the Methodists moved in in 1789 and from time to time refurbished and expanded it. In April 1907 this chapel was renamed as Kingsway Hall but the building was condemned by the LCC as part of the clearance. It was then decided to join the development taking place on the new Kingsway road and build a new Mission including a spacious chapel. An idea of the nature of the area around Great Queen Street and Holborn just before the new Kingsway was built can be found in the book "Old time Aldwych, the Kingsway and Neighbourhood". It was written by Charles Gordon and published in 1903 by T Fisher Unwin. Long out of print a copy might possibly be found through antiquarian booksellers. At the time of writing a copy is available on Amazon.

A new seven-story building called Wesley House was home to the West London Mission from 1911 until 1972, when it merged with the Hinde Street Methodist Chapel (a merger not completed until 1982). Wesley House included a youth club, religious meeting rooms, a luncheon club, mission offices, and accommodation for resident staff. Adjacent to Wesley House and with a frontage on to Kingsway the Church also speculated by building the International Buildings which was let to many tenants and was a source of much needed revenue to run the mission. The mission was inaugurated at Wesley House on 6 December 1911, but Kingsway Hall, the chapel attached to Wesley House, required another year of construction. Although Kingsway Hall itself has been demolished, Wesley House remains today, no longer a mission, as do the International Buildings.

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