ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Of these totals it may be said that 260 places with 100,497 worshippers represent the 'Old Dissent,' and 123 places with 31,583 worshippers the Methodist Revival. The changes which had been going on from 1830 to 1850 were in still more vigorous operation in the latter half of the century. A rapidly growing population overspread all ancient and artificial boundaries, so that remote suburbs like Hammersmith and Hampstead, Camberwell and Clapham, became integral parts of London. Districts which had furnished large congregations to ancient sanctuaries were depopulated, houses giving place to offices and warehouses, or were colonized by Jews and aliens. Conse- quently more and more of the old meeting-houses in the central area were closed, the sale of their sites providing funds for the erection of large and commodious buildings in growing suburbs. In some cases the location of these was determined by the residence of persons who had been members of the old congregations, so that some kind of historical continuity was maintained. Thus Devonshire Square (Baptist) is represented at Stoke Newington, Hare Court and New Court (Independent) at Canonbury and Tollington Park respectively, and Carter's Lane (Unitarian, formerly Presby- terian) at Islington. In the City the only remaining representatives of the Old Dissent are the City Temple, accommodating a society which had formerly met in Lime Street, Camomile Street, and the Poultry ; Bishopsgate Chapel, representing White's Row, Spitalfields, and Holywell Mount ; the Friends' Meeting-house at Devonshire House ; and the Moravian Church, formerly Bradbury's Meeting-house in Fetter Lane. The improvement in Nonconformist church architecture since 1850 is remarkable. The most noteworthy examples are Christ Church, West- minster Bridge Road, replacing Rowland Hill's polygonal Surrey Chapel, and the City Temple on Holborn Viaduct, built in 1873 at a cost of ^70,000 ; but the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington Butts, replacing an old Baptist chapel near Tooley Street, Westminster Chapel near Buck- ingham Gate, and many in the suburbs in various styles and of various denominations bear witness at once to a more cultivated taste and an enlarged liberality. In this connexion must be mentioned the Congregational Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, erected in 1875 on the site of the old Fleet prison as a memorial of the ministers ejected by the Act of Uniformity. This accommodates the Congregational Librarv, and is the meeting place of the London Board of Congregational ministers ; it is also the head quarters of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, with its subsidiary organizations, and of the National Federation of Evangelical Free Churches. Akin to this is the Baptist Church House, Southampton Row, built in 1902 as the head quarters of the Baptist Union. A Wesleyan Church House of stately proportions is about to be erected on a commanding site near Westminster Abbey. A modern edifice of a different character, but demanding notice, is the Salvation Army Head Quarters in Queen Victoria Street. In other than material aspects London Nonconformity has advanced during the last half-century. Old controversies have died out. An angry dispute in 1856, about a small volume of hymns called The Rivulet by 395
