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The chapel and
its hall sit side by side at the top of London
Road. The situation is similar to that of the
Methodist church and its hall over the border at
Gorleston. The chapel dates from 1877, the hall
from a quarter of a century later, but this was
of course time enough for fashions to change. The
chapel, though a simple red brick structure, has
new-classical detailing, a reminder of
non-conformism's suspicion of the gothic revival.
The hall, on the other hand is in the mode of the
turn of the century's non-conformist flirtation
with the Arts and Crafts movement. Before building their own
chapel, the Halesworth Methodists had camped out
in an 18th Century independent chapel, vacated by
its congregation in 1836 as too small for their
purposes. The capacity of 170 was more than roomy
enough for the Methodists at the time of the 1851
Census of Religious Worship, but Methodism was
one of the growth denominations of the century,
especially in rural Suffolk, and so by the 1870s
the Methodists ventured a building of their own.
And there it is still today.
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