Bishop Street Wesleyan Chapel, Leicester

Bishop Street Wesleyan Chapel is a Methodist chapel in the centre of Leicester, built in 1815 in the Georgian Neo-Classical style. It is Grade II listed and still serves as a Methodist church, which makes it one of the older places of worship in the city that remains in regular use.

What is Bishop Street Wesleyan Chapel?

The building went up in the early nineteenth century, when Wesleyan Methodism was spreading quickly through English towns and needed large preaching houses. Leicester's congregation commissioned a chapel on Bishop Street, close to the area around Town Hall Square. Its designer is recorded as the Methodist minister William Jenkins, so the chapel was planned by a member of the movement itself rather than by a distant professional architect.

Why is the architecture worth a look?

The chapel follows the restrained Georgian Neo-Classical manner popular in 1815: ordered proportions, a symmetrical frontage and classical detailing rather than the Gothic ornament that later Victorian chapels often favoured. For visitors interested in urban architecture, it is a clear example of how nonconformist congregations adopted the polite classical language of their time.

Historic England lists the building as Bishop Street Methodist Chapel, under list entry number 1074061. It was first listed on 5 January 1950, and it belongs to a group of listed buildings in the Town Hall Square area. This makes a short walk past the chapel easy to combine with other historic sights nearby.

What is special about the organ?

The organ case is considerably older than the chapel itself. It is linked to "Father" Smith, the organ builder who worked for Charles II. An extra bay was added to the building so that the instrument could be housed, an unusual detail for a chapel of this date and a reminder of how much importance the congregation gave to music in worship.

How big was the congregation?

Records compiled by the Wesleyan Methodists give a picture of the chapel's scale. In 1868 it had seating for 1,600 people. By 1873 the figure was recorded as 1,260, and by 1940 it stood at 900 in pews. The numbers differ between sources and years, but they show a large chapel that served a substantial part of Leicester's Wesleyan community. In 1873 schools were also erected on a site east of the chapel, extending its role beyond Sunday worship into education.

Frequently asked questions

When was the chapel built? In 1815.

Who designed it? The Methodist minister William Jenkins is named as the architect.

Is it still a place of worship? Yes, it continues as a Methodist church, with Sunday morning worship.

Is it protected? Yes, it is Grade II listed, with the listing dating from 1950.

Where is it? On Bishop Street in central Leicester, near Town Hall Square.