Former East Moors Forward Movement Mission Hall (now Eastmoors Youth Centre), Splott, Cardiff

History

The former Forward Movement hall on Sanquhar Street in Splott was built in 1892. The Forward Movement was the missionary wing of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, a denomination traditionally strong in the rural Welsh speaking areas, and the oldest protestant denomination with purely Welsh origins. As South Wales industrialised through the C18 and C19 the leaders of the church sought to win converts in South East Wales where populations were expanding rapidly and becoming more anglicised.

The Calvinist Methodists began a series of ‘English Causes’ campaigns in 1869. In 1892 they established the ‘The Society for Church Extension and Mission Work’, or the ‘Forward Movement’. The aim was to bring evangelical preaching to the non-religious working classes of Cardiff, Newport and the surrounding industrial communities. There was paternal concern over the moral wellbeing of working class communities and financial backing from the coal millionaires John Cory and Edward Davies Llandinam.

John Pugh, minister at Clifton Church in nearby Adamsdown (listed No.18641) was a founder of the movement and was appointed as its first superintendent. He had been preaching in the area and elsewhere and was well known for his impassioned open air speaking. Pugh, along with another leading figure in the movement, Seth Joshua, started with the use of tents to hold revival meetings and attract large crowds under cover. Once a congregation was established a hall was then built and the tented meetings moved onto a new community. Splott is known to be the first community where the revival meetings were undertaken.

It is reported that nearly 50 halls were built in total but only 5 are known to survive. Other halls survive at Malpas (Evangelical Church. 1898), Whitchurch Road, Cardiff (Heath Evangelical Church. 1900 rebuilt 1907), Monthermer Road, Cardiff (Crwys Hall, now Highfields Church. 1900), and Neath (1903. Listed GII). The halls are known to be varied in architectural style but always ambitious in size and seating capacity to attract as many members as possible.

The East Moors hall is shown on the 2nd ed OS Map of 1901, with a rear extension already added by that point. It was the first Mission Hall to be built and was an integral part of the rapid development of Splott at the very end of the C19. It was constructed in a narrow angled plot at the very edge of the Splott Farm lands and located between the grid pattern of housing to the N and E and the timber yards and the Bute Gas Works S of Sanquhar

Street and East Tyndall Street. Its design of a large box-like hall, almost filling the plot it sits in, and with a frontage squared to Sanquhar Street is suggestive of the ambitious efforts that the Movement made to bring religion to the community of Splott – utilising a piece of land in between the housing and the industrial workplaces with limited effort at this stage towards an elaborate architectural design. An early undated photograph shows a gable in between the hall and frontage block with ‘F.M. INSTITUTE HALL’ in large lettering. The hall was used by its congregation until they moved to the Jerusalem Calvinistic Methodist Church on Walker Road (dem. 1987) and was then later converted for use as a youth community centre. It continues to provide important facilities for the inhabitants of Splott.

Exterior

Hall, to rear, with entrance block fronting Sanquhar Street. 2 storey. Coursed roughly dressed stone. Painted stone window and door surrounds to entrance block. Yellow brick detailing to hall. Hipped slate roof to hall, plain parapet and flat roof to entrance block. Glazing replaced.

Entrance block of asymmetric layout: main 3 bay part with 4-light transom windows in centre and left bay, 2- light transom in right bay. Wide elliptical arched doorway with framed overlights and 4x doors, the stone arch with ‘WELCOME EASTMOORS CROESO’. Offset 2 light window in centre bay and doorway to right. Stepped down 2 bay section to left, doorway to left and 2-light window to right. Ground floor openings have stone relieving arches and cusped heads, the doors with stepped springers. Later lean-to garage to right. 6 bay Hall to rear, aligned at right angles. Blind rear wall. Later lower 2-storey extension with blocked doorway and red brick repairs. Brick lean to under corrugated steel roof.

Interior

Entrance hall with an angled stair to left and dog-leg stair to right. Both stairs with heavy turned newels, balusters and handrails. Lower hall area to rear modernised. Storage and office space on the upper floor. Upper floor of hall retains roof structure and supporting cast iron pillars with Corinthian capitals, raked gallery with seating. Stage installed at rear. Decorated ventilation ceiling fittings. Contemporary extension to rear with alterations, evidence externally of former doorways and fireplaces.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a rare surviving example of a Forward Movement Mission Hall. It survives largely intact and retains its original hall and layout, with later extensions, maximising the space available. It directly relates to the early phase of a religious revival movement and the missionary efforts in a newly industrialised area. It is of special historic interest as the first purpose-built hall of the Forward Movement; one of only 5 known surviving Forward Movement halls in Wales. It is also important for its historic associations with John Pugh, a preacher and key figure in the evangelising of working class communities of South Wales at the time of the Great Revival.

External Links

Cadwr Listing

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