The Gurdwara Sahib Woolwich is a

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

gurdwara A gurdwara or gurudwara () is a place of assembly and place of worship, worship in Sikhism, but its normal meaning is "place of guru" or "home of guru". Sikhism, Sikhs also refer to gurdwaras as ''Gurdwara Sahib''. People from all faiths and rel ...

in central

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

in the

Royal Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London, England. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolita ...

, South East

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. It was built in 1814–16 as a

Methodist church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

and converted into a Sikh place of worship in the late 1970s. The main hall is

Grade II-listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

; the former Soldier's Institute and Sunday School next door, now in use as a

langar Langar may refer to: Community eating *Langar (Sikhism) *Langar (Sufism) Places Afghanistan *Langar, Badakhshan, Afghanistan *Langar, Bamyan, Afghanistan *Langar, Faryab, Afghanistan *Langar, Herat, Afghanistan *Langar, Wardak, Afghanistan ...

hall, is not.

Location

The gurdwara and langar are situated on an irregular

quadrilateral In Euclidean geometry, geometry a quadrilateral is a four-sided polygon, having four Edge (geometry), edges (sides) and four Vertex (geometry), corners (vertices). The word is derived from the Latin words ''quadri'', a variant of four, and ''l ...

plot of about 1500 m² (0.37 acre) on the corner of Calderwood Street and John Wilson Street (part of the A205 or South Circular Road). The plot is at the north side of Calderwood Street, which at this point slopes down towards the east. This street was called William Street at the time when the Methodist church was built. It was renamed Calderwood Street in 1938, after a local industrialist and Woolwich Polytechnic chairman. The south-eastern section of Calderwood Street is part of

Bathway Quarter Bathway Quarter is an area of historic interest in the centre of Woolwich, South East London. Most buildings in the Bathway Quarter are Grade II*, Grade II or locally listed, while the area as a whole is designated a conservation area by Green ...

, a designated

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

; the gurdwara and langar are not.

History

Methodist church

The first Wesleyan Methodist congregation in Woolwich was established in 1789 by a carpenter at the Warren, Thomas Murrell. A chapel was built on Woolwich New Road, a site that is now occupied by the east end of Equitable House. As this chapel was soon outgrown, in 1812 a plot on the north-west side of William Street (now Calderwood Street) was leased from the Powis Estate. Building started in 1814 and the church was completed two years later at a cost of £4,594. In 1817 a Sunday school for 400 children was built immediately to the east of the chapel. This building was replaced in 1889–90 by the current building designed by Walter Whincop, after a legacy was left by a former Sunday school superintendent. The new building would also house the Soldiers' Institute, the Methodist church being an official garrison chapel for nonconformists.

Sikh gurdwara

The Soldiers' Institute closed after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and church attendance dwindled to around fifteen in 1977. A redevelopment scheme for the site was blocked by Greenwich Council after the chapel was listed in 1973. In 1977 the two buildings were put up for sale and shortly afterwards acquired by the local Sikh community to be converted into a gurdwara, which has been its function ever since. During the harvest festival ('' Visakhi''), thousands of Sikhs march in procession ('' Nagar Kirtan'') through Woolwich, starting at the Gurdwara Ramgarhia in Masons Hill and finishing at the Gurdwara Sahib in Calderwood Street.

The buildings

The Woolwich Sahib Gurdwara consists of two buildings: the former Wesleyan church hall of 1816, now a

, and the former Soldier's Institute and Sunday School of 1890, now in use as a

. The site is partly surrounded by a brick wall with fences, some of which are decorated with Sikh symbols. On the south-west corner of the premises a tall, ornamented flagpole has been placed with a

Nishan Sahib The Nishan Sahib (), also known as the Sikh flag, is used to represent the Sikh people worldwide. In 1936, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee ratified the Rehat, Sikh Rehet Maryada, which states its colour as either basanti (xanthic) ...

, the Sikh triangular flag.

The main building

The main church hall was finished in 1816 and is a Grade II-listed building since 1973 (English Heritage Building ID: 200246). The architect is not known, although it is likely to have been designed by the Rev. William Jenkins, who is responsible for at least eleven Methodist chapels in the early 1800s, all clearly inspired by

Wesley's Chapel Wesley's Chapel (originally the City Road Chapel) is a Methodist Church of Great Britain, Methodist church situated in the St Luke's, London, St Luke's area in the south of the London Borough of Islington. Opened in 1778, it was built under the ...

of 1778 in

City Road City Road or The City Road is a road that runs through central London. The northwestern extremity of the road is at Angel where it forms a continuation of Pentonville Road. Pentonville Road itself is the modern name for the eastern part of Lo ...

. The Woolwich chapel was an enlarged version of the Wesleyan chapel in

Rochester, Kent Rochester ( ) is a town in the unitary authority of Medway, in Kent, England. It is at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway, about east-southeast of London. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Kent, Chatham, ...

, a Jenkins design. It measures 16 by 22 m (52x71 ft). The Wellington Street façade has five bays and two floors with nine round-headed windows. The centrally placed main entrance is accentuated by a

prostyle Prostyle and Prostylos (), literally meaning "with columns in front", is an architectural term designating temples (especially Greek and Roman) featuring a row of columns on the front. The term is often used as an adjective when referring to th ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

. The three central bays project slightly and are crowned by a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

. On the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

below the pediment a stone plaque with the inscription ''The Methodist Chapel, 1816'' is now covered up by a wooden sign with the text ''ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਵੂਲਿਚ - Gurdwara Sahib Woolwich''. The west and east walls are plain brick with ten windows each. At the north end of the building is a small

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

and the former

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

. The plainness of the interior of this type of Methodist chapel with its flat ceiling has been described as barn-like. In the main seating on the ground floor rows of pews faced the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

. Additional seating areas were created on the galleries situated around a large oval opening through which the pulpit could be seen. Unusual in a Methodist church of this type is the presence of

burial vaults A burial vault (also known as a burial liner, grave vault, and grave liner) is a container, formerly made of wood or brick but more often today made of metal or concrete, that encloses a coffin to help prevent a grave from sinking. Wooden coffi ...

underneath, "in case another Death should happen in the Preacher's family". The two main floors of the building are currently used as Darbar Sahib Halls, the lower and upper prayer hall, containing the ''

Guru Granth Sahib The Guru Granth Sahib (, ) is the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism, regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and eternal Guru following the lineage of the ten human gurus of the religion. The Adi Granth (), its first rendition, w ...

'', the holy scriptures. The main alterations for Sikh worship have been the removal of the pews and the insertion of a fixed floor where the galleries had been.

The annex building

The annex building was built in 1889–90 after a design by local architect Walter Whincop. It is described in Volume 44 of the ''

Survey of London The Survey of London is a research project to produce a comprehensive architectural survey of central London and its suburbs, or the area formerly administered by the London County Council. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Robert Ashbee, an A ...

'' as "the last of a locally distinctive type to survive in Woolwich". Unlike the adjacent church hall it is not a listed building. The main façade on Calderwood Street, now painted white, consists of three bays and three storeys (including the basement). It is flanked by two single-storey porches. The western entrance was for the children attending Sunday school, the eastern entrance was for the soldiers. The original west doors were replaced by ornamental doors of wood and bronze made in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

. In the basement were baths and a café for the military men, on the ground floor their reading room and a meeting room, on the top floor was the Sunday school. The building's main use currently is that of a

hall (a communal refectory serving vegetarian food) with a kitchen. On the top floor are meeting rooms, a library,

Granthi A Granthi (, ) is a person, female or male, of the Sikh religion who is a ceremonial reader of the Guru Granth Sahib, which is the holy book in Sikhism, often read to worshipers at Sikh temples called a Gurdwara. The name Granthi comes from the ...

quarters and offices. The basement is used for various functions and serves as a Saturday school for pupils 5–18 years old, the ''Guru Nanak Khalsa School Greenwich''.Layout of the Gurdwara
an

on ''woolwichgurdwara.org.uk''.

References

* , ''Woolwich – Survey of London, Volume 48'', Yale Books, London, 2012.
online text chapter 6
please note page numbers online do not correspond with the book)

External links

{{commons category, Sahib Gurdwara, Woolwich
Woolwich Methodist Church, Greenwich
on ''britishlistedbuildings.co.uk''
Gurdwara's official website

Ustad Sital Singh Sitara 2014
fund-raising event with views of the gurdwara and langar, on ''YouTube''
Woolwich Nagar Kirtan 2016
procession through Woolwich, on ''YouTube'' Religion in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Churches completed in 1816 19th-century church buildings in England Former Methodist churches in the United Kingdom Gurdwaras in London Grade II listed churches in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Woolwich Grade II listed religious buildings and structures 20th-century gurdwaras