Bristol Road Methodist Church

Brighton's first Methodist church opened in 1808 in Dorset Gardens off St James's Street, a recently developed road east of the Old Steine and the Royal Pavilion.[2][3] By the 1870s, housing had spread much further east, and the area between Thomas Read Kemp's high-class Kemp Town estate and the earlier development around St James's Street had been filled in with high-density housing. The area became known as Kemptown [sic]. In 1872, Reverend J. Martin, a Methodist minister, proposed the construction of a new church to serve this area. Architect Thomas Lainson, who also designed several buildings (including a Congregational church) in Hove and the Middle Street Synagogue in Brighton,[4] was commissioned to draw up a design. He submitted this on 1 March 1872.[1] A builder named John Fielder was responsible for construction, which continued through 1873.[1] A stone tablet (now partly illegible) at the base of the tower, dated 7 October 1873, names Lainson, Fielder and Reverend Martin, and bears the inscription hitherto hath the Lord helped us.[1]

The church was part of the Wesleyan Methodist tradition, and during the early 20th century became part of a circuit of six local Wesleyan churches; the others were the nearby Dorset Gardens Methodist Church (also in Kemptown), Hove Methodist Church, and others in Hurstpierpoint, Portslade and Southwick.[5]

A closure proposal was announced in 1987.[6] In 1989, the congregation moved out and began to share St Mary the Virgin, a nearby Anglican church.[7] After this, the building was sold and converted into a recording studio.[1][7] It is now owned by Brighton College.[6]

The former church was listed at Grade II on 26 August 1999.[1] It is one of 1,124 Grade II-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove.[8]

Thomas Lainson adopted the Italian Romanesque Revival style for his design.[1][6][7] The building is of brown and red brick, laid in the English bond pattern, with dressings of stone and pale brick.[1][6] There is a tower at the southeast corner, rising in three stages and capped by a short spire and a lead roof. Most of the main roof area is laid with slate, but there is one timber-framed section as well.[1][6] The south face has a stair turret at the southwest corner and the tower at the opposite corner; and between these is the entrance porch, a portico with three arches separated by columns of granite topped with abaci of stone.[1][7] Three round-arched windows, with stone surrounds and an architrave, are above this; and the façade is completed by a rose window below the gabled roof. There is another entrance in a small porch on the east face of the tower.[1] The internal layout consisted of a three-bay nave leading into a sanctuary, and a single-storey vestry with four arched stone-dressed windows on the northeast side.[1]

• Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove: A–B
• List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove