'The Congregation was large & the meeting-house filled': Dissenters and their places in the early eighteenth century

Résumé 0

This lecture considers a new body of archival evidence regarding the building of post-Toleration meeting houses in London. Looking at leases, builders’ contracts, furniture inventories, Church records and surveys of congregations, it reveals the financial costs of building new premises and the advantages of renting, fitting, and sharing places of worship such as corporation halls. Particular attention is paid to the financing of new places, the building strategies and architectural models, as well as to the many uses to which meeting houses were put. It argues that the dissenters continued to blur the boundaries between domestic and public worship by building complexes with ministers’ houses but also rented accommodation, kitchens, warehouses, and gardens, drawing financial resources from their places, ranging from rents, grave reservation, baptismal fees, and the sales of books.