Plans are under way to mark the 150th anniversary next year of a Methodist church opened in London’s Victorian East End.
The original Bow Methodist Church was opened by the evangelical movement in 1865.
But it was totally destroyed in an enemy air-raid during the London Blitz in 1941 and remained closed for a decade.
The church was finally rebuilt and rededicated in 1951 by its new minister at the time, the Rev William Clapham. Regular weekly services have been held ever since.
The building in Bow Road, which also underwent recent renovations and reopened for a second time, is currently used as a community centre for public meetings and often art exhibitions by East End artists, as well as worship.
Its caretaker Ian Devlin raised £37,000 for the nearby Ian Mikardo High School last summer when he led a team of church volunteers up Africa’s tallest mountain, the 19,300ft Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, in a sponsored charity climb.
The church council voted at its meeting earlier this month to mark the 150th anniversary during 2015.
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