Imperial Hall

Imperial Hall stands today as a residential building, but its terracotta facade hides a past as the Leysian Mission, a massive welfare center built by the Methodist Church in the early twentieth century. When it opened in 1904, it functioned as a grand social hub for the impoverished residents of the area, offering services that ranged from health clinics and a legal aid center to film screenings and a brass band. The building contained a vast auditorium called the Victoria Hall, which could seat two thousand people and featured an intricate organ alongside stained glass windows crafted in the Arts and Crafts style. The Methodists designed the mission to look intentionally secular and welcoming, hoping to draw the working class away from the local music halls and taverns of the era. With a construction cost of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds, it was one of the most expensive mission halls ever built in the United Kingdom.