Broomwood Methodist Church

“Broomwood Road Methodist Church welcomed its first minister in 1897.  Services were then held in a temporary building described as a “tin hut”, while a large church was constructed on the corner of Broomwood Road and Kyrle Road.  We believe that the church itself was opened in 1900 and we celebrate our anniversaries accordingly.  This was a time when a lot of building work was taking place near the west side of Clapham Common and the church grew and flourished accordingly.

Sadly, it had not been in existence for many years when the First World War broke out.  We have a complete run of photographs of our ministers and it is a sign of the times that we have examples of ministers in military uniform.  We lost many members in the conflict, but the congregation remained and continued to witness in the local area.  The outbreak of the Second World War led to a further loss of members and it is a striking feature of the memorial window in our present building that names are repeated across the generations.  Some of the present congregation still recall those who survived the war or were relatives of those who died.

In more recent times our numbers have been much smaller and the decision was taken at the beginning of the 1980s to sell the land on which the large church stood and to construct a new church on part of the remaining site.  Some of the old furniture was moved to the new “upper room” sanctuary, while the large main hall and other ancillary premises remained available for community use.  A Methodist Homes Housing Association building was constructed on the site of the old church and we have been enriched by the presence of residents in our congregation.  The area around has also changed very considerably, enabling us to welcome a diverse congregation as people from all parts of the world have put down roots in our community.  We are proud of our history, but also proud of what we can offer to those around, and we look forward to continuing our witness in the 2020s and beyond.”