Poole Methodist Church (also known as Poole High Street Methodist Church or The Spire) is a nineteenth-century

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 ...

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

High Street in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

, England. An extension to the church was nominated for the 2016

Carbuncle Cup The Carbuncle Cup is an architecture prize, given annually, originally by the magazine ''Building Design'', and since 2024 by ''The Fence'', to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months". It was intended to be a ...

for "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months".

History

methodist 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 ...

chapel existed in Poole from 1793, but was shut down when the Poole Methodist Church was built. Poole Methodist Church was built by

Charles Bell Sir Charles Bell (12 November 177428 April 1842) was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, artist, and philosophical theologian. He is noted for discovering the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in the ...

between 1878 and 1880 out of Purbeck and

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

, and was opened to the public in 1880. It is a gothic building, with a distinguishable large pointed north-west tower, and a chapel building that was built in 1893. Between 1843 and 1985, the church was part of the Poole Methodist Circuit, a collection of methodist churches in the Poole and East Dorset area. During 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 ...

, the building was used as a schoolroom. In 2005, five methodist churches in Poole combined into one congregation based at the Poole Methodist Church. In 2011, the church was used as a polling station for the United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum.

Renovation

In the summer of 2009, the church was closed for safety reasons after plaster from the building's walls started to fall off. An application was made that year to renovate and extend the building, to make it the centre of Poole's methodist community. The project was estimated to cost £4 million, and was accepted in 2010. Phase one of the project was completed in 2014, with the introduction of a new

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

; the project received around £200,000 from the

Garfield Weston Foundation The Garfield Weston Foundation is a grant-giving charity based in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1958 by Canadian businessman W. Garfield Weston (1898–1978), who during his lifetime contributed to numerous humanitarian causes, bo ...

. The church's windows were later replaced by

double glazed Insulating glass (IG) consists of two or more glass window panes separated by a space to reduce heat transfer across a part of the building envelope. A window with insulating glass is commonly known as double glazing or a double-paned window, ...

windows. The new extension was completed in 2016, with the church rebranding itself as "The Spire". The extension replaced a previous Georgian chapel. In 2016, the extension was nominated for the

, an annual award given to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described the extension as "a pile of site Portakabins they forgot to remove."

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 50.71680, -1.98326, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title, format=dms Methodist churches in Dorset 1880 establishments in England Churches in Poole