Gateshead, Melbourne Street, Bethesda Chapel

HER Number:
17733

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Gateshead, Melbourne Street, Bethesda Chapel

Place:
Gateshead

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Methodist Chapel

Site Type: Specific:
Methodist New Connexion Chapel

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Demolished Building

Description:
Bethesda Chapel (New Connexion) on Melbourne Street, built in 1835 at a cost of £3,800 and could officially seat 1200, although when William Booth was a successful evangelist here in 1859-61 (prior to his leaving Methodism to found the Salvation Army) it is recorded that over 2,000 crammed in to hear him. A plain brick building, it was replaced in 1896 by the Whitehall Road Methodist Church, and became a printing works, finally being demolished in 1964; its site is now under a dual carriageway.

Easting:
2539

Northing:
6334

Grid Reference:
NZ25396334

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Peter Ryder, 2017, Nonconformist Chapels in Gateshead