Walcot Methodist Chapel
Walcot Methodist Chapel, Nelson Place East, London Street, Bath, Somerset, BA1 5DA
Walcot Chapel was designed by William Jenkins of London and opened on 30th May 1816, 14 months after the foundation stone was laid. It was the second Methodist building in Bath, the first being in New King Street (now demolished) where the congregation had become too large for the building. Unusually for a Methodist church, the front façade has a Latin inscription ‘Deo Sacrum’.
The organ was originally supplied to the newly opened Bath Assembly Rooms in 1771. It was moved to Walcot Chapel in 1818/19. This was a year or so before organs were officially sanctioned for larger Methodist chapels and when the use of organs in Methodist worship was controversial! It is claimed to be the longest-serving Methodist organ.
The room under the church was used as a schoolroom, with separate entrances for girls and boys. In 1817 there were 414 children in the Sunday School and 82 teachers, but each week some of them were out teaching ‘in the villages’.
Walcot Methodist Chapel, Nelson Place East, London Street, Bath, Somerset, BA1 5DA