Melbourne Street, Bethesda Chapel

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.