Summary
Methodist Church built in 1905 as Portland Place Memorial Church, to a design by Howdill and Sons.
History
Lincoln High Street is part of the major Roman road, Ermine Street, linking London to York. It has served as the principal route into the city from the south since the first century, when a legionary fortress was established on what is now ‘Uphill’ Lincoln (the vicinity of the cathedral and castle). The fortress was later transformed into a civilian settlement, taking the name Colonia Lindum, from which its modern name is derived. The Roman town gradually expanded south along Ermine Street beyond the River Witham. This development pattern was largely re-established after the Vikings resettled the city during the C9. By the time of the Norman Conquest, both sides of Ermine Street appear to have been developed for some distance south of the river, but as late as the C18, development to the east and west of the High Street was mostly limited to the areas of the castle and cathedral in ‘Uphill’ Lincoln and along the riverfront in ‘Downhill’ Lincoln.
The land south of the River Witham witnessed considerable industrial and commercial growth during the late-C18 and C19. The land to the east and west of the High Street was transformed into a network of workshops, factories and yards, a trend reinforced by the arrival of the Midland Railway in 1846, followed by the Great Northern Railway in 1848, which transformed a large swathe of the area into a complex of railway buildings, storehouses and sidings. The High Street witnessed gradual redevelopment throughout this period, creating the largely C19 streetscape seen today, although a significant number of pre-industrial buildings have survived, often hidden behind later facades.
The Central Methodist Church on the High Street was built in 1905 as Portland Place Memorial Chapel, serving Lincoln’s Primitive Methodist community, replacing an earlier building on the site. It was designed by the Leeds-based architectural practice, Howdill and Sons, in an eclectic Edwardian Baroque style typical of the Primitive Methodist chapels designed by the practice. It acquired its current name in 1932 after the formation of the Methodist Church of Great Britain. The church was also provided with a Sunday school, theatre and meeting rooms, adjoining to the rear (west). The building underwent internal alterations in 1968, when a new timber pulpit, dais and decorative first-floor screen were added.
Externally, the building largely retains its original appearance. A ramp and handrail were added to the principal, east elevation in the early 2000s. The church and adjoining buildings remain in use by the Methodist community.
Howdill and Sons was an architectural practice based in Leeds founded by Thomas Howdill (1840-1918) who was later joined by his son, Charles Barker Howdill (1863-1941). The practice designed dozens of chapels for the Primitive Methodist Church as well as numerous secular buildings. As well as being an architect, Charles Howdill was also an accomplished photographer and an early exhibitor of colour photographs.
Details
Methodist Church built 1905 as Portland Place Memorial Church, to a design by Howdill and Sons.
MATERIALS: the building is constructed of red brick with cream-coloured stone (possibly Lincolnshire limestone) ashlar dressings and slate and lead roofs.
PLAN: the building stands on a rectangular plan comprising two adjoining ranges, the church forming the eastern range fronting the High Street, and the Sunday school and meeting rooms forming the western range The church fronts the High Street, and is of two storeys under a pitched roof sloping to the north and south, with a lead-roofed louvre breaking through the ridge. The Sunday school and meeting rooms form the western range, which does not have a formal frontage.
EXTERIOR: the principal, east elevation is designed in a richly-detailed, Edwardian Baroque style. It is principally of two storeys, with taller towers flanking the central portion of the building. The ground floor is of channelled ashlar limestone, while the first floor and towers are primarily of red brick with extensive ashlar dressings and channelled ashlar quoins. The recessed central section has three round-arched doorways with double keystones and mid-C20 doors and glazing. In the spandrels are two draped oval cartouches, the southern one engraved with the words: PORTLAND PLACE MEMORIAL 1906. On the first floor, there are three windows on a sill band, flanked by Ionic columns. The larger, central window is flanked by two pairs of columns and has voussoirs, dated 1905, breaking into the pediment above. Within the tympanum of the pediment is a lunette window within a round-arched opening with ashlar and gauged brickwork voussoirs. To either side of the central window is a smaller window within an ashlar surround with a large keystone and a shaped lintel.
To the south of the central element is a square bell tower, arranged in three stages, topped with an octagonal turret with a spherical lead dome and finial. There is a doorway on the ground floor with a large keystone and voussoirs in the channelled ashlar, and a single window on the south return. On the east and south faces of the first floor, there is a round-arched window within a moulded ashlar surround with a keystone, and two narrow, plain windows. On all four elevations, at the top of the second stage of the tower is a bow fronted balcony with a stone balustrade. Above this, the turret has four louvred openings with pediments and keystones, and four volute supports flanked by Ionic columns.
To the north of the central element is a smaller, square tower, also arranged in three stages and with similar fenestration to the bell tower, but topped with a ramped, coped parapet with octagonal finials on the pedestals. The tower is topped with a battered, square, lead turret with a louvred opening on each side, topped with a square, lead dome.
The north and south returns of the building have five metal-framed windows on each floor, of alternating four-and eight-light designs, containing stained glass. A string course runs across each elevation at first-floor sill height. To the rear (west) is a cross wing containing the Sunday school, theatre and meeting rooms. It has shaped, coped gables to the north and south elevations. The north elevation contains two large, round-arched windows on the first floor and irregular fenestration on the ground floor. The south elevation has four, nine-light casement windows on the ground floor and two round-arched windows on the first floor. The westernmost bay of the range is lower, at one and a half storeys, with a monopitch roof and a series of windows at ground and first floor, all but one of which are blocked in. The west and south elevations of the rear range carry a series of brick buttresses.
INTERIOR: the entrance lobby was remodelled and refitted during the mid-C20. The chapel itself has an elliptical, arched and boarded ceiling and panelled ribs, with patterned stained-glass windows. The gallery is panelled and arranged in a horseshoe shape, supported on round cast iron columns. The upper tier has Ionic columns and elliptical arches with keystones. At the west end of the ground floor, there is a wooden pulpit, dais and rail, and above this, behind the choir gallery, a wooden screen, all installed in 1968. On either side of the 1960s interventions on each floor are a pair of single doors linking to the Sunday school and meeting rooms beyond. The fittings include the original timber benches with moulded ends. Adjoining the chapel to the west, the Sunday school wing has an entrance lobby and stairwell with a cross beam carried on Ionic columns and pilasters. There are wooden pedestals flanked by short wooden balustrades, and a concrete cantilevered open well staircase with a cast iron balustrade. The theatre on the first floor has a cross beam ceiling with a blind clerestory on wooden posts.
