Wesley's Chapel

Wesley's Chapel, on City Road in the St Luke's area of London, is one of the most important churches in the world for Methodists — "the Mother Church of World Methodism". Built in 1778 under the personal direction of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, it was the headquarters of his great religious revival, and it remains a living Methodist church, a place of pilgrimage, and a museum of the movement he founded. With John Wesley's own house beside it and his grave behind it, the chapel is the spiritual home of a denomination that has spread from this London street to every corner of the globe.

The chapel was the creation of John Wesley himself. In 1776 he applied to the City of London for a site on which to build a new chapel, and was granted land on City Road; after raising funds from across his Methodist "Connexion", the foundation stone was laid on 21 April 1777. The architect was George Dance the Younger, the distinguished surveyor to the City of London, and the builder was Samuel Tooth, a member of Wesley's own Foundery society. The new chapel was formally opened with a service on 1 November 1778, replacing Wesley's earlier London base, the Foundery, where he had first preached in 1739 after his evangelical conversion. From the new City Road Chapel, Wesley directed the Methodist movement until his death in 1791, and it was here that the worldwide Methodist Church effectively had its centre.

The chapel is a fine and dignified example of Georgian architecture, built of brown brick in Flemish bond with dressings of yellow brick and stone, and it holds Grade I listed status. It has been altered and enriched over the centuries: the original plain windows were replaced with stained glass during the nineteenth century, and the gallery was modernised in 1864. Around the gallery runs a relief motif said to have been designed by Wesley himself — a dove with an olive branch in its beak, encircled by a serpent following its own tail, symbolising the union of innocence and wisdom. According to tradition, the original columns supporting the gallery were ships' masts, donated by King George III. Beneath the chapel, in the crypt, is the Museum of Methodism, which tells the story of the movement, and beside the chapel stands John Wesley's House, the home in which the great preacher lived and died, preserved with many of his possessions.

Behind the chapel, in its garden, is the grave of John Wesley himself, a place of pilgrimage for Methodists from around the world. Across City Road, opposite the chapel, lies Bunhill Fields, the famous burial ground of Nonconformists, where John Wesley's mother Susanna is buried, along with such figures as John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe and William Blake. The chapel has also seen its share of notable events in modern times: it was here that the future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was married, and many distinguished visitors have come to pay their respects at the cradle of Methodism.

Today Wesley's Chapel continues as a thriving and diverse Methodist congregation, part of a circuit of the London District of the Methodist Church, with a substantial membership and a busy round of worship, drawing both local worshippers and pilgrims from across the world. As both a living church and a museum, it keeps alive the memory and the mission of John Wesley.

The chapel stands on City Road, in the St Luke's area on the southern edge of the London Borough of Islington, close to the City of London. Bunhill Fields burial ground lies just across the road, along with the Honourable Artillery Company's grounds, the City with its skyscrapers and Wren churches a short distance to the south, the lively district of Shoreditch to the east, and the wider attractions of central London all within easy reach.

From John Wesley's grant of land in 1776 and the building of the chapel by George Dance the Younger in 1777–78, through Wesley's direction of the Methodist movement from here until his death in 1791, to the Museum of Methodism in its crypt and Wesley's grave in its garden, Wesley's Chapel gathers the history of world Methodism into one building. A Grade I listed Georgian chapel and the Mother Church of Methodism, it remains a living church and a place of pilgrimage on City Road — the spiritual home of a worldwide movement.