Central Methodist Church, Eastbourne

Until the early 19th century, the area now covered by the town of Eastbourne was mostly farmland punctuated by four small and entirely independent villages linked by a single track. Bourne (later known as Old Town) stood inland from the English Channel coast and was based around the 12th-century parish church of St Mary the Virgin; Southbourne was a linear settlement on the road from Bourne to the sea; Sea Houses, further along this route, developed from the 14th century as a fishing village; and Meads stood on much higher land to the west, where the sheer cliffs around Beachy Head rose from the coastline. The combined population of the four settlements in 1801 was 1,668, and all were…

and pinnacled buttresses.]] Central Methodist Church is an elaborate Decorated Gothic Revival building of grey stone rubble laid in courses with some ashlar. The roof is laid with pantiles, which are not original. The church and its associated buildings stand on a corner site. The church itself is entered from Pevensey Road and faces southeastwards; its side façade faces southwest on Susans Road. Next to it on this road is the Sunday school and church hall, which also has a northwest elevation along Langney Road. The church hall is a two-storey Decorated Gothic building of stone, with gables, cast ironwork and lancet windows with tracery. The adjacent Sunday school, also of two storeys, has…

By 1896, the chapel had more than 250 regular members, and in summer there was not enough room to accommodate all the visitors who wanted to worship. By the end of the century, trustees of the chapel began to consider extending the building to add at least 200 more seats; and by 1902, a grander plan was announced to replace the chapel with a 1,000-capacity "central church", to act as the centre for Eastbourne Methodists' scheme of "aggressive evangelism" among tourists, the ever-growing permanent population and other chapels in the Eastbourne Circuit. Members of the church formed a committee in late 1902 to consider how best to proceed and to establish and look after a fund to pay for…