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1892
This, the earliest Wesleyan church in Toxteth
was built in 1827. Seating 1350, it was erected
by members of Pitt Street Chapel for work in the expanding
south end of the town. Its architectural beauty and the aesthetic
quality of the 'chapel in the park' were greatly admired. The Litany
was used and the chants were sung by hired choristers.
The 'Stranger in Liverpool' says of
this, some 7 years after establishment "...a spacious and elegant building,
with stone front and portico, in Stanhope Street, Harrington, with
burial ground attached; the whole surrounded by a substantial stone
wall and palisadoes, which have a handsome appearance. The interior
of the building is finished in a chaste Grecian style, and has a
powerful and fine-toned organ, built by Bewsher and Fleetwood."
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The church
is said to have suffered severely from 'The Plague' (in fact a severe outbreak
of Typhus of which some 21,000
died in Liverpool). In 1847 ('Black '47') 412 victims of
the fever were buried in the graveyard.
Day Schools
attached to the chapel were built in Windsor Street in 1865. The church
managed to retain its aristocratic character until the 1890s when the
whole district began to change rapidly. The School accommodation was
greatly improved in 1927 from the proceeds of the sale of the Day
School. It was added to the Mission Circuit in 1931 and was
thereafter run on Mission lines. It continued with some success, in an
area with a large Irish and black population, until the surrounding
houses were all demolished in the late 1960s and the church was closed.
(LRO)
The church was demolished in 1970s and the burial grounds shown on the 1908 maps were landscaped.
It is not known if there was any re-interment elsewhere.
The surrounding wall is all that now remains and was still present in early 2005.
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