Falls Road Methodist Church

26 March, 1854 - 26 June, 1966
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FALLS ROAD METHODIST CHURCH
 
This site seeks to place on record and make accessible some information about a remarkable church based on Divis Street in West Belfast. It is not generally known that the church was one of the many buildings in Belfast designed by Sir Charles Lanyon, the renowned Architect: he made a donation of £1 towards the construction costs. The growth of Methodism in Belfast since the middle of the 18th Century accompanied the growth of the City of Belfast; Falls Road Methodist Church played an important role for at least a part of that journey.
 
In researching material for this site and also for a family history the author received enormous help from the Methodist Historical Society in Ireland based at Edgehill College, Lennoxvale, Belfast, BT9 5BY where there is a treasure house of archive material relating to Methodism in Ireland. Much of that material is still being indexed and catalogued. The Society welcomes members and produces an 'Archives and Study Centre Newsletter'.
 
History
 
For a number of years prayer meetings and other religious services were held by Methodists in the Falls Road district. The site chosen for the church was in the midst of a multitude of new streets opposite some large flour mills. The mills were owned by Messrs Alexander who granted the plot of land at a merely nominal rent. The church opened on Sunday, 26 March, 1854. Click here and here for maps of 1861 showing the location of the church in Divis Street across the road from Boundary Street.
 It prospered and  offered a variety of schools over a very wide area and was able to purchase a manse. For a time a medical mission was established and a Deaconess employed to carry out a kind of surgery where prescriptions were made for poorer people. In other pages  we include much more about the history of the church. At one stage the flour mill owners who were also prospering wished to purchase the church site and relocate the church elsewhere. Over time people moved away from the area and on Sunday, 26 June, 1966, the closing services sadly took place. The site was sold to Belfast Corporation for the princely sum of £11,500.