Westminster Chapel

The congregation was formed in 1840 and its original chapel building was completed in Buckingham Gate in 1841. The congregation outgrew that building, so construction of a new chapel was begun in 1864. This building is the present chapel. It opened on 6 July 1865 and had capacity to seat about 1,500 people, now reduced to about 1,000. Westminster Chapel has had five particularly well-known pastors: the Revd Samuel Martin (1842–78), G. Campbell Morgan (1904–17, 1933–43), John Henry Jowett (1918–22), Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1939–68), R. T. Kendall (1977–2002) and Greg Haslam (2002–16). The chapel was founded as a Congregational church, but during the pastorate of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones…

The present chapel, completed in 1865, was designed by the architect William Ford Poulton (1822–1901) of Reading, Berkshire, in a Lombard Romanesque Revival style. It is built of stock brick with some red brick and stone dressings. The façade on Buckingham Gate is gabled and has a recessed triple-arched central porch, with graduated arcading above, all having decorative shafting. There is a tower to the right, with coupled arched windows. The top stage of the tower was added in the 20th century in a different style and colour. The auditorium, with seating capacity of about 1,500, is nearly oval, with two tiers of galleries and large open roof span. The galleries too are nearly oval, except…