Looking at Buildings

, printed from the Looking at Buildings website on Friday 29th March 2024

Wesley Hall, Crookes

Wesley Hall [1] was the second of Hale's octagonal churches. It is a powerful composition with the many buttresses giving a strong vertical emphasis as they break through the parapets. The exterior is largely unchanged but the interior has had a floor added and has lost most of its original character.

pulpitGlossary Term [2] is gone, the ancient pewGlossary Term [3] is no more and "the dim religious lightGlossary Term [4]" is relegated to the cellar".

Sheffield, Wesley Hall, Crookes

Hale was anticipating many of the changes being brought about by the reordering of churches today to make churches more "user-friendly". The newspaper's comment that the chapel "looks more like the Hippodrome than a place of worship" was intended as praise not criticism.

Last updated: Monday, 26th January 2009