congregation, with Sunday Schools, &c., £7,000 being the sum given for the site—In 1839, Hurst Street Chapel was built for the Unitarian Domestic Mission. May 1, same year, the first stone was laid of the Newhall Hill Chapel, which was opened July 10, 1840.—The Church of the Messiah, Bread Street, was commenced Aug. 12, 1860, and opened Jan. 1, 1862. This church, which cost £10,000 and will seat nearly 1,000 is built over a canal, one of the strangest sites ever chosen for a place of worship. In connection with this church, there is a chapel in Lawrence Street.
Welsh Chapels.—The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists meet in the little chapel, bottom of Hockley Hill, and also in Granville Street, near Bull Row. The Welsh Congregationalists (Independents) assemble at Wheeler Street Chapel, opened May 1, 1839.
Wesleyans.—The first Wesleyan Chapel in Birmingham was opened by John Wesley, March 21, 1761, the building having been previously a theatre. Cherry Street Chapel, opened July 7, 1782, was rebuilt in 1823.—Bradford Street Chapel was opened in 1786, Belmont Row in 1789, and Bath Street in 1839.—In 1825, a chapel was built in Martin Street, which was converted into a school on the opening (Nov. 10, 1864) of the present edifice, which cost £6,200.—Newtown Row Chapel was built in 1837) and Great Hampton Street and Unett Street Chapels in 1838, the latter being enlarged in 1814.—Branston Street Chapel was opened April 18, and Moseley Road, May 1, 1853.—The Bristol Road Chapel was opened January 18, 1854, and that in King Edward's Road, January 18, 1859.—The first stones were laid for the chapels in Villa Street April 21, 1864, Handsworth Oct. 21, 1872, Selley Oak Oct 2, 1876, Peel Street, August 30, 1877, Cuckoo Road, June 10, 1878, Nechells Park Road Oct. 25, 1880, Mansfield Road Feb. 19, 1883. Besides the above there are chapels in Coventry Road, Inge Street, Knutsford Street, Lichfield Road, Lord Street, New John Street, Monument Road, and Warwick Road, as well as mission rooms in several parts of the town and suburbs. Acock's Green, Erdington, Harborne, King's Heath, Northfield, Quinton, &c., have also Wesleyan Chapels.—The Wesleyan Reformers meet in Floodgate Street, and in Upper Trinity Street.
Miscellaneous.—Lady Huntingdon's followers opened a chapel in King Street in 1785, and another in Peck Lane in 1842 (both sites being cleared in 1851), and a third in Gooch Street, Oct. 26th, 1851.—The believers in Joannah Southcote also had chosen spots wherein to pray for their leader, while the imposture lasted.—The celebrated Edward Irving opened Mount Zion Chapel, March 24th, 1824. "God's Free Church," in Hope Street, was "established" June 4th. 1854.—Zoar Chapel was the name given to a meeting-room in Cambridge Street, where a few undenominational Christians met between 1830 and 1840. It was afterwards used as a schoolroom in connection with Winfield's factory.—Wrottesley Street Chapel was originally built as a Jewish Synagogue, at a cost of about 2,000. After they left it was used, for a variety of purposes, until acquired by William Murphy, the Anti-Catholic lecturer. It was sold by his executors, Aug. 2nd, 1877, and realised £645, less than the cost of the bricks and mortar, though the lease had 73 years to run.
Places of Worship.—Roman Catholics.— From the days of Queen Mary, down to the last years of James II. 's reign, there does not appear to have been any regular meeting-place for the Catholic Inhabitants of Birmingham. In 1687, a church (dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen and St. Francis) was built somewhere near the site of the present St. Bartholomew's but it was destroyed in the following year, and the very foundation-stones torn up and appropriated by Protestant
