Bath Street Chapel, Poplar

A split in the London Wesleyian Methodist had led to the formation of the United Methodist Free Chapel in the late 1840s.  They built a small chapel in Bath Street in the early 1850s.  The Free Chapel’s growing popularity led to the decision, in 1862, to acquire adjoining land, which fronted East India Dock Road, and build a bigger Chapel with enough room for congregation of 1500.  The new Bath Street Chapel was opened in 1868.  

In 1919 the Poplar Wesleyian Methodist  acquired Bath Street Chapel and decided to use it for their social campaigns.  Control passed to Reverend W H Lax, “Lax of Poplar”, whose Poplar Methodist Mission was near by in East India Dock Road. 

The Rev. Lax, supported by King George V, set about a very expensive conversion of the Bath Street Chapel into King George’s Hall.  The basement was to have a men’s club and recreation room, the ground floor to be use for a Sunday School and “church work”.  The top floor would become a concert hall with a licence to be used as a cinema.  King George’s Hall was opened by the Duke of York in 1920.  

Enemy bombing during the Second World War destroyed King George’s Hall.  The London County Council acquired the site after the War for social housing.  A need for a modern fire station led to the building of Poplar Fire Station on the Bath Street Chapel site in 1967. .