Once a Week (magazine)/Series 1/Volume 5/The Foundry at Moorfields
THE FOUNDRY AT MOORFIELDS.
In a preceding number[1] an account was given of the singular accident through which the Royal Gun Foundry at Moorfields was abandoned by the Government and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich originated. After its abandonment by the Government, it remained in a ruinous and dilapidated condition for some years, until at length it was repaired and fitted up as a chapel for the Rev. John Wesley, M.A. At that time the doors of most of the churches in London and Bristol were closed against him and his brother Charles. To provide accommodation for the religious “societies” under their care they had to seek separate buildings.
In 1739, the erection of a chapel in Bristol was commenced, and during the same year a lease was taken of the old Ordnance Foundry, at the suggestion of two gentlemen (Messrs. Ball and Watkins), who advanced a portion of the requisite funds for the lease and alterations.
These gentlemen were unknown to Mr. Wesley, and it was owing to their generosity that the first Methodist chapel was opened in London, in a portion of the foundry buildings. The remainder of the buildings were arranged as dwellings for the Rev. J. Wesley and a porter, a “book-room,” day-school, and dispensary.
Although the purpose of the building was changed so materially, the original designation was retained, and when, in 1777, the chapel in City Road was erected, it bore the name of the “New Foundery” for many years. The “Foundery” continued to be the head-quarters of Methodism for nearly forty years. It was there that Wesley lived, and that his mother died. It was there, too, that Thomas Maxfield, the first of Wesley’s “lay helpers,” commenced his labours. In the precincts of the old foundry Charles Wesley composed some of his noblest hymns, while from its “book-room” were issued the almost countless pamphlets, sermons, hymns, and serials of John and Charles Wesley and their helpers. So numerous were the associations connected with it, that it has been deemed one of the starting points of Methodism, and when the Wesleyan body celebrated their centenary the period was calculated from the opening of the foundry in 1739. An account of the history of the “Foundery” Chapel would comprise much of the early history of Methodism itself. Few places are remembered with deeper interest by the Methodist, as being associated with the formation and early growth of that system of ecclesiastical organisation which, weak and despised in its beginning, is now so extensive and so flourishing. And at the same time it furnishes a connecting link between a distinguishing movement of the last century and the history of London, adding one to the thousand links which unite our world-city with everything that is noblest and most precious in our civil and religious liberties.