Bell, Charles – Designed more than 60 chapels

Charles Bell (1846-1899)

Charles Bell was a British architect who designed buildings in the United Kingdom, including over 60 Wesleyan Methodist chapels.

Born in Grantham, he was educated at Grantham Grammar School, then worked for a time for his brother’s building firm

He was articled to London architect John Giles, and became an ARIBA in 1870, lived in Hampstead and practised in London.

The practice designed over sixty churches, mainly WM and in the gothic style.

Much of this work was concentrated in London and the south-east, and included in London, Rivercourt, Hammersmith (1875) Roupell Park (1879-80), Streatham (1882-3), and Bermondsey Central Hall 1900), as well as the restoration of Wesley’s Chapel, City Road after fire damage and subsequent additions including the manse and Morning Chapel (1879-80); also Vale Road, Tunbridge Wells (1873) and Herne Bay (1885). Further afield his WM chapels included Tewkesbury (1877-8), Punshon Memorial, Bournemouth (c.1880), Poole (1886), Southlands, York (1886-7, unusually in Italianate) and Trinity, Workington (1890).

Despite being London-based he received a series of commissions in his home county of Lincolnshire, notably in Grimsby, including Duncombe Street 1872-3) and South Parade (1881).

Perhaps his most significant commissions were the Wesley Memorial churches in Oxford (1887) and Epworth (1888). He also designed some non-Methodist churches, including Jewin Welsh Presbyterian, Islington (1878), Haverhill Old Independent (1884-5) and St. Augustine, Lee (1886). As architect to the Tottenham School Board he designed a number of schools for them and was also responsible for Kent College, Canterbury (1885).

The practice, continuing as Bell, Meredith & Withers, designed Wesley, Newquay (1904) and, as Meredith & Withers, developed an eclectic style, of which Raynes Park (1915) and Queen Street Central Hall, Scarborough (1922) are fine examples.