Plymouth, Keyham Methodist Chapel, Devonport (Victoria Memorial Chapel)

PLYMOUTH
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The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

KEYHAM METHODIST CHAPEL, DEVONPORT

The Keyham Methodist Chapel is located in Admiralty Street, Keyham.

A congregation was first formed in Johnston Terrace, where twenty-five men and women held services in the room of a house there. Mr Peter Lamb was the first Wesleyan preacher at Keyham.

In 1889, thanks to the efforts of a Mr & Mrs W J Moon, they acquired an iron building capable of holding 100 worshippers and moved it from Exeter to a small parcel of land between the Great Western Railway and Saltash Road. The first pastor was the Reverend L Ralton.

The first iron chapel for the Methodist congregation at Keyham

An artists' impression of the first iron chapel
for the Methodist congregation at Keyham.

Then in August 1901 the foundation stone was laid of a new Chapel in Admiralty Street, designed by Mr H J Snell of The Crescent, Plymouth. Known at the time as the Victoria Memorial Chapel, it was built in the Romanesque style, in local limestone with buff brick dressings, by Mr G P Turpin & Sons of Courtenay Street, Plymouth, and was opened by Mrs W J Moon, wife of one of the circuit stewards, on Wednesday October 8th 1902. She had promised the first one hundred crowns in the thousand that they hoped to collect that day towards the construction.

The structure was not finished at that time as they were still £4,300 short of their target but it would eventually consist of the chapel itself, large Sunday Schools, class-rooms, minister's and trustee's vestries and a caretaker's house. The minister was the 'progressive and rigorous' Reverend W Moyle, who took up the appointment from Leicester. At the usual evening meeting that followed, it was announced that £350 had been collected during that day, some from purses donated by children of the other chapels in the Circuit.

The new Methodist Chapel in Admiralty Street, Keyham, now demolished.

An artists' impression of the new Methodist Chapel
in Admirlaty Street, Keyham, now demolished.

An organ was later supplied by Messrs G Hele, of Plymouth.

Although it survived the Second World War, a falling congregation meant that this large building was no longer needed. The old one was demolished in 1975 and replaced by a smaller chapel with social housing, designed by Mr Francis Bush. The new Chapel was opened by Mr Paul Bartlett Lang on the evening of June 28th 1982. The Deputy Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, Mr & Mrs Bob Bishop, were also present. The Chapel was dedicated by the minister, the Reverend Norman Grigg.