Continuity and Adaptation: Archway Central Hall, 1934–2010
- Submitting institution
-
Manchester Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 257183
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
-
10.1179/0305803414Z.00000000058
- Title of journal
- The London Journal
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 33
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 0305-8034
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- March
- Year of publication
- 2015
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
A - Architecture
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- The article departs from traditional architectural history approaches by moving beyond the moment of creation to trace the ‘life biography’ of Archway Central Hall, commissioned by the Methodist Church in 1932, from conception through to its current fate. The building was part of a wider building programme by the Methodist Church to combine sacred and secular activities to reach out to the working classes The paper not only examines the building, and its significance, but places this within a wider sociological context on the move from secularity to post-secularity in the twentieth century. The paper’s originality stems from a demonstration of the possibility for religious buildings to act as multi-functional spaces that combine both secular and sacred, and to show that this has precedents in history. The paper is rigorous in its use of multiple archives, some of which are not public and not commonly used in architectural history, combined with the under-used method of oral history interviews. The paper also sought to use buildings as a route into understanding wider religious history, and engages with literature from human geography, social and religious history. The journal article was used as evidence in a recent planning appeal to save Archway Central Hall from demolition, which was upheld. The paper was developed from the wider project following international conference presentations at, for example, the College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley, California (2010). As a London-based case study, the article was published in the London Journal in order to underscore the importance of Archway Central Hall, and the Archway area, in London’s wider social, cultural and planning histories. Conversely, publication in a traditional historical journal was deliberate in order to demonstrate the worth of combining architectural and social history and, in particular, in tracing change in the built environment over time.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -