Central Hall's History
The vision for a Central Hall
The year 1891 was the centenary of the death of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and many leaders within the Methodist Church were concerned that the occasion be suitably marked.
It was not until 1898, however, that the Wesleyan Methodist Conference resolved to establish the Wesleyan Methodist 20th Century Fund to raise 1 million guineas, known colloquially as the Million Guinea Fund, for the financing of a great forward movement and to use part of this money to build a great centenary memorial hall on a suitable site in London. It's aim was to secure "One Million Guineas from One Million Methodists" and by far the most numerous subscribers were "ordinary" Methodists whose wages were often scarcely enough to last the week.
Every subscriber received an illuminated certificate duly inscribed and the children received medals, their names being inscribed on what are known as the "historic rolls". In 1904 the fund closed with a total of £1,075,727 - which in today's money equates to more than £57 million - with the trustees of the central hall being allocated £242,206 from the 20th Century Million Guinea Fund.
This building was to house the offices of the Wesleyan Church in addition to providing a great meeting place and centre for the work and outreach of the Church, at the same time being a "visible and monumental memorial". In 1903 the freehold site at Westminster was purchased and architects contracted for the building. The remaining funds were invested in new Chapels, foreign and home missions, education, soldier's and sailor's homes, temperance work and children's homes. The Methodist Central Hall Westminster was opened in 1912. Methodists all over the country began to get a vision to build Central Halls to reach out to their local communities. Methodist Central Halls were designed to meet not only the spiritual needs of the population but also to serve as social and educational centres for the communities they served.
Southampton
In Southampton the Methodist congregation in East Street had been operating a centre for mission to the surrounding dockland community. The local Methodist circuit decided to launch a fundraising campaign to purchase land and build Southampton’s Central Hall. As with the fundraising for Westminster Central Hall ordinary people pledged money but the project was greatly aided by the generosity of a wealthy businessman, Joseph Rank, father of J. Arthur Rank, the founder of the Rank Organisation.
The building was opened to the public on February 18th, 1925. The total cost of the project was £41,000. The local circuit had raised £35,500 and there was an outstanding balance of £5,500 still to be funded.
In the opening leaflet, the minister, Rev Arthur Boyce, made the following statement,
’Around the docks is a great area as congested and overcrowded in parts as the river-side areas of south and east London. The vast population does not trouble ‘the churches’, nor scarcely is it troubled by the churches. It is true that there are popular down-town churches, frankly recruited from suburbia.
The areas surrounding the new hall presents a tragic problem of human listlessness and indifference to the best things in life. Methodism has accepted the challenge of the dockland’s need, believing that in her genius for winning the masses to Christ she has in Southampton an open door of opportunity’
The vision for Southampton’s Central Hall
When Central Hall was being constructed in the early 20’s, a sign was erected outside that read, ‘Workers Wanted with Grace, Grit and Gumption’.
Underneath this headline was list of all the activities that the new Methodist congregation would be engaging in from Central Hall. The list included:
The text on the back page of the leaflet for the opening ceremony on February 18th, 1925, the first minister of the Central Hall congregation, Rev. Arthur Boyce, articulated the vision for this new building:
'Hence the Central Hall will become a busy hive of positive ideals and interests with
CHRIST as the CENTRE.’
Local operatic and music societies had their performances here and many people took advantage of the films that were shown in the auditorium, the building having been built with a screen and projection room. The story goes that a film was shown every Sunday night immediately after a gospel service. If you wanted to get good seats for the film you needed to go to the Gospel service first!
For Southampton and the World
In the early days a banner hung from the entrance to Central Hall saying 'For Southampton and the World’. 1927 was a significant year when evangelists, George and Stephen Jeffreys, conducted a mission in the building. People queued eagerly to gain admittance to the packed meetings. Over 1000 people made commitments to Christ and there were many reported healings. Those who had experienced healing would walk from Southampton to Basingstoke to testify to God’s power on an annual march of witness. A number of the local Pentecostal churches have their roots in this series of meetings.
In 1947, a young Billy Graham docked in Southampton on his first trip to the UK and was driven to Central Hall where he preached his first message on English soil. During the 50s and early 60s Central Hall became the home for local Youth for Christ gatherings.
The Methodists move out
Sadly by the mid-60s the Methodist congregation had dwindled to such an extent that it was no longer feasible to keep Central Hall, and in 1965 the building was sold to Hampshire Education Authority.
In the final Central Hall magazine published in 1965 the editor, CW Block, wrote these parting words – not knowing what the future would hold:
’As my wife and I sever our connection with Central Hall, we pray that there may be many more chapters still to be written in which the Lord may be glorified and men and women brought to the knowledge of His saving grace.’
Under Hampshire Education Authority the building was put to use as an annexe of City College, however only the classrooms and small hall were occupied and the main hall soon fell into a poor state of repair.
A new era!
Central Hall was, therefore, in a rather dilapidated state when it was purchased by Community Church in 1989. After a lot of hard work by members of the church, replacing the roof and redecorating the whole building, the first meeting took place at Easter 1990. Once again Central Hall began to serve its original purpose and the prayers of CW Block 25 years earlier were beginning to be answered.
Throughout the 1990s the Central Hall continued to see new life as Community Church grew and the Holy Spirit stirred many. As well as a home for Community Church, Central Hall became a place of resource and encouragement for many from further a field. Prophetic conferences, training events and Flying High, an annual leadership gathering, drew many from across the country and around the world.
In September 1995 the first Cutting Edge event took place in the Central Hall. Martin Smith and a team of musicians and dancers had been running a similar worship event in Littlehampton and were invited to Southampton to do the same here. Soon monthly Cutting Edge events were taking place in both Littlehampton and Southampton and hundreds of young people were coming from across the south to worship God. When Central Hall was full to capacity people had to be turned away. Soon people realised that they needed to get here early in order to get in and once a month on a Saturday night long queues could be seen snaking round the building as people waited to get in and worship God.
In 1996 the BBC’s Songs of Praise was recorded at Central Hall and the BBC received more feedback from that event than for any previous event.
It was at the Cultural Shift youth conference in the late 1990s that the 24-7prayer movement was birthed. 24-7prayer has since become a global movement with prayer rooms and groups participating in 63 different countries.
By the early 2000s it was clear that substantial work was needed in order for Central Hall to continue to serve the church and city into the future. The work done when purchased by Community Church in 1989 had been largely cosmetic and much of the underlying infrastructure such as heating and electrics had been untouched since the 1960s. Many of the fixtures and fittings dated back to the 1920s. Having looked at all the options it was decided to focus initially on the heating, electrics, main hall and foyer. And so the next step in the journey of faith began.
The church raised £750,000 for the work to go ahead and after five months of hard work the church began to gather again in this historic building – where for the last 80 years God has been transforming lives. We want to see Central Hall fulfill all the potential that the original visionaries saw over 80 years ago.
Future Vision
Over 80 years later we are echoing the vision of those that laboured to build this amazing building. Our vision for the future of Central Hall is very much in line with its original purpose.
A group of men and women saw the need of the docklands with no effective Christian witness and decided to do something about it. We want this building to once again be a source of life to our community.
· Life Centre – serving our community
· Coffee Shop – enabling us to open up the building
· Sunday Congregations – Morning and Evening
· Centre for prayer & worship
· Evangelistic events
· Performance and arts events
· Pastoral and Counselling provision
· New Community Training courses
· Community Groups – Lantern making, Tiny Treasures
· Commercial Hirers – Conferences, concerts, rehearsals, courses and University
· Office Users – New Community, Miracle Street, potentially Oasis and Mayflower
As New Community, this vision is not simply limited to a building in the centre of the city. Across the city and the region we are seeking to develop and support a network of Christ-centred communities that are seeking to be good news to those around.
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