Q One, Lovell Park Road, Leeds

Image: © Mark Stevenson Taken: 29 Nov 2014

Former site of the Brunswick Methodist Chapel, Wade Lane, near the Merrion Centre. When it was built, it was the largest Methodist chapel in existence but by 1953 there were 112 churches serving a population of 500,000 and its future was called into question, not least because of the nearby and more visually pleasing Oxford Place Methodist Chapel. When the church organ was installed in 1827, it was described as 'the organ which cost 1,000 and 1,000 members', because it divided the congregation. Such was the division that members "left by the hundred" in protest, believing the introduction of an organ was somehow profane and that it diluted the meaning of church services. In 1956, the church began screening films once a month after the evening service on Sunday. By the late 1970s, like many other churches, it was struggling financially and devoid of a congregation. In 1980 planning permission was granted to the Mountleigh Group for a multi-storey office block to replace the church. Then, in 1982, there was talk of the derelict church becoming a mosque and in December 1983, thoroughly vandalised, it was being used by dossers and drunks. Today the site is occupied by an office block. It is not known what happened to the organ.

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