New Room for Wesley

This isn’t actually a new room, it’s a very old room, but it’s called the New Room

John Wesley was a  Church of England vicar; he came from a religious family, and his mother in particular was a big influence on him as she preached, which was unknown for women in those days . He was born in Lincolnshire in 1703 but came  to Bristol in 1739; he didn’t come for advancement or reward, he came to preaching to the poor and the needy, not in a church but out in the open air. Eventually, after only a short while, he was so popular and drawing so many people to hear him that it was decided there should be a proper place to meet. He bought a small parcel of land and built what he himself called ’our new room’.

The New Room wasn’t just used for worship, there was a dispensary and a schoolroom; Wesley believed it was his duty to attend to the well-being of the whole person, their physical health, their education, and not just their spiritual; needs.  In 1748 it was extended and rebuilt to the size it is today which you can visit if you are in Bristol town centre

If you do visit, you will enter through a long paved courtyard with a statue of Wesley on horseback. You’ll enter the New Room and come into an elegant, spacious room with a gallery running round a ‘lantern’ set into the ceiling, and at the end a double pulpit, one above the other. Around the walls are some of the original benches which the congregation would sit upon, I guess only the old and infirm, because most of the people attending would be standing – and what a squash it must have been because sometimes there were 1,000 listening to the scriptures, hearing the sermon and singing the hymns. Upstairs there are rooms where people would study and stay in the past, including a bed Wesley himself slept in when visiting. Whatever your faith or none, I’m sure you’ll find it a peaceful and inspiring place.

Here is more about it:

http://www.newroombristol.org.uk/History