Holland Road Baptist Church
Encyclopedia
Holland Road Baptist Church is a Baptist
church in Hove
, part of the English
city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1887 to replace a temporary building on the same site, which had in turn superseded the congregation's previous meeting place in a nearby gymnasium
, it expanded to take in nearby buildings and is a landmark on Holland Road, a main north–south route in Hove. It is one of ten extant Baptist church buildings in the city, and is the only one to have been listed by English Heritage
in view of its architectural importance.
banking dynasty, bought most of the land for development in 1830. The estate was 250 acres (101.2 ha) in size and consisted of farmland, pastures and woodland, all centred on Wick Farm. Its boundaries were the parish of Brighton, the road along the seafront, the Stanford estate (a similar landholding, owned by Sir William Stanford) and Dyke Road at the boundary of the parish of Preston
. The Wick estate was first described in print in 1247, and it passed through many owners in the next six centuries; Anthony Stapley
, one of the regicide
s of King Charles I
, held it for nearly 50 years. In 1830, Thomas Scutt and Thomas Read Kemp
owned the land, and a portion on the south side was used to build the Brunswick estate
. They sold the remaining 216.2 acres (87.5 ha) to Goldsmid for £55,525 (£ as of ).
Holland Road was named after Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
(Lord Holland), a Whig statesman
and friend of Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. It was one of the first roads planned in the area—the name was decided by 1833—but development was slow. Only two buildings were in place by 1854. By the 1860s it had reached its full length, running from the seafront to the original (now closed) Hove station on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
's line to Portsmouth
.
A Baptist fellowship was founded in the area in the 1870s. In its early years, their meetings and services were held at a gymnasium on Western Road. In 1881, George Congreve moved to Hove. He was trained in medicine and became wealthy by selling an elixir
which apparently cured tuberculosis
, but he also had a religious calling and planned to establish a new church. Between 1882 and 1883 he bought the site on which the church now stands from Sir Julian Goldsmid
, who owned it by that stage. Congreve founded a Young Women's Christian Institute in 1882, and an iron building was erected on the site to accommodate it.
John Wills, a prolific designer of buildings for Nonconfirmist
communities, was asked to design a permanent church for the congregation. (One of his later commissions was the Hove Methodist Church
.) Congreve paid the full cost of construction and also became the church's first treasurer. Building work took place during 1887, and the first service was held on 29 July 1887. Charles Spurgeon
, an influential Baptist preacher, was invited, but he could not attend because of illness. He helped in other ways, however: he sent his brother to preach in his place at the inaugural service and selected the church's first pastor
; and one of his sons took this role subsequently.
The temporary iron building was removed to allow the church to be built, and the Young Women's Christian Institute moved into new premises next to the church. A similar institute for men was established in 1899, but neither remain in existence. The church helped to establish two other Baptist places of worship in Hove. In 1901, a mission church established four years earlier in the west of Hove was connected administratively with Holland Road Baptist Church, and by 1904 it was able to move to its own 400-capacity premises. The Stoneham Road Baptist Church is still open on the same site. In 1957, a deaconess
at Holland Road founded a new church on the rapidly developing Hangleton
housing estate (the population grew from 109 to 6,158 between 1931 and 1951). It is now called the Oasis Christian Fellowship Church and is part of both the Baptist Union of Great Britain
and the Evangelical Alliance
.
In the 1970s, the church hall was redesigned, and exterior alterations and cleaning took place between 1980 and 1981. Work on the interior of the church had been proposed for many years, and an architect was appointed in 1991. When the plans were ratified in 1997, the structure and fabric of the building were found to be in unexpectedly poor condition. The hall was completely redesigned, an extension was built at the rear, the south end was altered, new windows were installed in the porch and structural alterations were carried out in the main part of the church. The project cost about £700,000 and was completed in 1999. The church repurchased the former Young Women's Christian Institute building in the 1990s after it had passed out of their ownership; it was in such poor condition that a proposal was made to demolish it and replace it with a new multi-purpose building to be used by the church and other groups.
style—commonly associated with Anglican
churches of the 19th century but rare for a Nonconformist church of the era. The exterior is of pale Purbeck Stone
, and the roof is tiled with slate
. The church tower forms a local landmark: it stands slightly forward from the rest of the building, rises in four stages and is topped by a pointed roof in the Rhenish
style.
The interior is aligned north to south, parallel to the road. The arched entrance door in the base of the tower, flanked by granite
memorial tablets laid in 1887, leads to the transept
, lit by a series of lancet window
s with coloured glass. Below the hammerbeam roof
, a gallery runs round three sides of the church, supported by Corinthian
columns made of cast iron
. There are rose window
s in the south and north walls; the north window has a quatrefoil
design and is decorated in the Arts and Crafts style
. The original pew
s and an elaborate pulpit
are still in place inside.
on 26 February 1991. 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.
There are services on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings and Tuesday afternoons. Some of these include Holy Communion. Several prayer groups and activities for children and young people take place regularly.
The church is one of eleven Baptist communities in the city of Brighton and Hove, ten of which have their own church premises. Seven of the eleven are part of the Mid Sussex Network of the South Eastern Baptist Association, one of nine divisions of the Baptist Union of Great Britain
. Apart from the Holland Road Baptist Church, the other member churches are at Brighton (Florence Road and Gloucester Place), West Hove, Hangleton and Portslade, and the Downs Community Baptist Church in Woodingdean which no longer has its own building and meets in a school.
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
church in Hove
Hove
Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
, part of the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
city of Brighton and Hove. Built in 1887 to replace a temporary building on the same site, which had in turn superseded the congregation's previous meeting place in a nearby gymnasium
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
, it expanded to take in nearby buildings and is a landmark on Holland Road, a main north–south route in Hove. It is one of ten extant Baptist church buildings in the city, and is the only one to have been listed by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
in view of its architectural importance.
History
The Wick estate was a large area of land north of the ancient village of Hove. Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, part of the GoldsmidGoldsmid
Goldsmid is the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers who sprang from Aaron Goldsmid , a Dutch merchant who settled in England about 1763. Two of his sons, Benjamin Goldsmid and Abraham Goldsmid Goldsmid is the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers who sprang from Aaron Goldsmid (died 1782),...
banking dynasty, bought most of the land for development in 1830. The estate was 250 acres (101.2 ha) in size and consisted of farmland, pastures and woodland, all centred on Wick Farm. Its boundaries were the parish of Brighton, the road along the seafront, the Stanford estate (a similar landholding, owned by Sir William Stanford) and Dyke Road at the boundary of the parish of Preston
Preston Village, Brighton
Preston Village is a suburban area of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex to the north of the centre. Originally a village in its own right, it was eventually absorbed into Brighton with the development of the farmland owned by the local Stanford family, officially becoming a parish of the town in 1928...
. The Wick estate was first described in print in 1247, and it passed through many owners in the next six centuries; Anthony Stapley
Anthony Stapley
Anthony Stapley was one of the regicides of King Charles I of England.Stapley was M.P. for New Shoreham , Lewes , Sussex . He was colonel and governor of Chichester and signed the death-warrant of Charles I...
, one of the regicide
Regicide
The broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after a trial...
s of King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, held it for nearly 50 years. In 1830, Thomas Scutt and Thomas Read Kemp
Thomas Read Kemp
Thomas Read Kemp was an English property developer and politician. He was the son of Sussex landowner Thomas Kemp, whose farmhouse in Brighton was rented by the Prince of Wales in 1786.-Biography:...
owned the land, and a portion on the south side was used to build the Brunswick estate
Brunswick (Hove)
Brunswick Town is an area in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is best known for the Regency architecture of the Brunswick estate.-History:...
. They sold the remaining 216.2 acres (87.5 ha) to Goldsmid for £55,525 (£ as of ).
Holland Road was named after Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland PC was an English politician and a major figure in Whig politics in the early 19th century...
(Lord Holland), a Whig statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
and friend of Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. It was one of the first roads planned in the area—the name was decided by 1833—but development was slow. Only two buildings were in place by 1854. By the 1860s it had reached its full length, running from the seafront to the original (now closed) Hove station on the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
's line to Portsmouth
West Coastway Line
The West Coastway Line is a railway line in England, along the south coast of West Sussex and Hampshire, between Brighton and Southampton, plus the short branches to Littlehampton and Bognor Regis....
.
A Baptist fellowship was founded in the area in the 1870s. In its early years, their meetings and services were held at a gymnasium on Western Road. In 1881, George Congreve moved to Hove. He was trained in medicine and became wealthy by selling an elixir
Elixir
An elixir is a clear, sweet-flavored liquid used for medicinal purposes, to be taken orally and intended to cure one's ills. When used as a pharmaceutical preparation, an elixir contains at least one active ingredient designed to be taken orally....
which apparently cured tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, but he also had a religious calling and planned to establish a new church. Between 1882 and 1883 he bought the site on which the church now stands from Sir Julian Goldsmid
Sir Julian Goldsmid, 3rd Baronet
Sir Julian Goldsmid, 3rd Baronet was a British lawyer, businessman and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1866 and 1896....
, who owned it by that stage. Congreve founded a Young Women's Christian Institute in 1882, and an iron building was erected on the site to accommodate it.
John Wills, a prolific designer of buildings for Nonconfirmist
Nonconformism
Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...
communities, was asked to design a permanent church for the congregation. (One of his later commissions was the Hove Methodist Church
Hove Methodist Church
Hove Methodist Church is one of six extant Methodist churches in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Founded on a site on Portland Road, one of Hove's main roads, in the late 19th century by a long-established Wesleyan community, it was extended in the 1960s and is now a focus for various...
.) Congreve paid the full cost of construction and also became the church's first treasurer. Building work took place during 1887, and the first service was held on 29 July 1887. Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a large British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers"...
, an influential Baptist preacher, was invited, but he could not attend because of illness. He helped in other ways, however: he sent his brother to preach in his place at the inaugural service and selected the church's first pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
; and one of his sons took this role subsequently.
The temporary iron building was removed to allow the church to be built, and the Young Women's Christian Institute moved into new premises next to the church. A similar institute for men was established in 1899, but neither remain in existence. The church helped to establish two other Baptist places of worship in Hove. In 1901, a mission church established four years earlier in the west of Hove was connected administratively with Holland Road Baptist Church, and by 1904 it was able to move to its own 400-capacity premises. The Stoneham Road Baptist Church is still open on the same site. In 1957, a deaconess
Deaconess
Deaconess is a non-clerical order in some Christian denominations which sees to the care of women in the community. That word comes from a Greek word diakonos as well as deacon, which means a servant or helper and occurs frequently in the Christian New Testament of the Bible. Deaconesses trace...
at Holland Road founded a new church on the rapidly developing Hangleton
Hangleton
Hangleton is an estate in west Hove, East Sussex. The estate was developed circa the late 1930s after the Dyke railway was closed.It contains both the oldest building in the city of Brighton and Hove, St Helen's Church, and the second oldest building: that which was Hangleton Manor and is now the...
housing estate (the population grew from 109 to 6,158 between 1931 and 1951). It is now called the Oasis Christian Fellowship Church and is part of both the Baptist Union of Great Britain
Baptist Union of Great Britain
The Baptist Union of Great Britain, despite its name, is the association of Baptist churches in England and Wales. -History:...
and the Evangelical Alliance
Evangelical Alliance
The Evangelical Alliance is a London-based charitable organization founded in 1846. It has a claimed representation of over 1,000,000 evangelical Christians in the United Kingdom and is the oldest alliance of evangelical Christians in the world....
.
In the 1970s, the church hall was redesigned, and exterior alterations and cleaning took place between 1980 and 1981. Work on the interior of the church had been proposed for many years, and an architect was appointed in 1991. When the plans were ratified in 1997, the structure and fabric of the building were found to be in unexpectedly poor condition. The hall was completely redesigned, an extension was built at the rear, the south end was altered, new windows were installed in the porch and structural alterations were carried out in the main part of the church. The project cost about £700,000 and was completed in 1999. The church repurchased the former Young Women's Christian Institute building in the 1990s after it had passed out of their ownership; it was in such poor condition that a proposal was made to demolish it and replace it with a new multi-purpose building to be used by the church and other groups.
Architecture
John Wills built the church in a Transitional GothicGothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
style—commonly associated with Anglican
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
churches of the 19th century but rare for a Nonconformist church of the era. The exterior is of pale Purbeck Stone
Purbeck Marble
Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone quarried in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England.It is one of many kinds of Purbeck Limestone, deposited in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods....
, and the roof is tiled with slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
. The church tower forms a local landmark: it stands slightly forward from the rest of the building, rises in four stages and is topped by a pointed roof in the Rhenish
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
style.
The interior is aligned north to south, parallel to the road. The arched entrance door in the base of the tower, flanked by granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
memorial tablets laid in 1887, leads to the transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
, lit by a series of lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s with coloured glass. Below the hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof, in architecture, is the name given to an open timber roof, typical of English Gothic architecture, using short beams projecting from the wall.- Design :...
, a gallery runs round three sides of the church, supported by Corinthian
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
columns made of cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
. There are rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
s in the south and north walls; the north window has a quatrefoil
Quatrefoil
The word quatrefoil etymologically means "four leaves", and applies to general four-lobed shapes in various contexts.-In heraldry:In heraldic terminology, a quatrefoil is a representation of a flower with four petals, or a leaf with four leaflets . It is sometimes shown "slipped", i.e. with an...
design and is decorated in the Arts and Crafts style
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
. The original pew
Pew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...
s and an elaborate pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
are still in place inside.
The church today
Holland Road Baptist Church was listed at Grade II by English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
on 26 February 1991. 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.
There are services on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings and Tuesday afternoons. Some of these include Holy Communion. Several prayer groups and activities for children and young people take place regularly.
The church is one of eleven Baptist communities in the city of Brighton and Hove, ten of which have their own church premises. Seven of the eleven are part of the Mid Sussex Network of the South Eastern Baptist Association, one of nine divisions of the Baptist Union of Great Britain
Baptist Union of Great Britain
The Baptist Union of Great Britain, despite its name, is the association of Baptist churches in England and Wales. -History:...
. Apart from the Holland Road Baptist Church, the other member churches are at Brighton (Florence Road and Gloucester Place), West Hove, Hangleton and Portslade, and the Downs Community Baptist Church in Woodingdean which no longer has its own building and meets in a school.