CENTRAL HALL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21923, 18 January 1946, Page 3

CENTRAL HALL

SCENE OF GATHERING

EQUIPPED BY GOVERNMENT

The Central Hall, Westminster, where the United Nations Assembly is meeting, is the physical centre of Methodism, says a Sydney Morning Herald correspondent in London. At its inception it was to have been the last word in ecclesiastical architecture.

When planned the building was to have had two towers over its mam entrance, but the trustees of Westminster Hospital, which is only a narrow road's width away, contended that the towers would overshadow the _ hospital wards and obstruct their sunlight and air. So for many years the main front of tlie Central Hall had a face of raw brickwork.

In 1934 the hospital authorities relented (also they were moving the hospital to Mill Bank), and the front of the Central Hall, an upper portico with a large curved pediment over columns, was completed in Portland stone in keeping with the rest of the building. But there are no towers, and it seems there never will be. Large Dome

The predominant exterior feature of the building is its large dome, one of the largest in London. Saint Paul's and the British Museum reading room are greater. The Central Hall's gilded spikes resulted from Nonconformist insistence that a cross should not be erected on the dome and apparently no one could think of an appropriate alternative.

The authorities at the Central Hall did not welcome the Government’s requisition of their building for the conference, but, as no other really appropriate building is available, opposition was withdrawn. While the building was being refurnished and prepared for the delegates Sunday services were held in the comparatively near-by Victoria Palace Theatre, where the “Lambeth Walk” has echoed twice a day off and on for a number of years. The Central Hall is admirably suited to its new purpose. It can seat 2700 and is completely equipped with rostrum and acoustic aids. The Office of Works put it in order and equmped offices and rest rooms. There will be no bar or restaurant, but nearby Church House, in Great Smith street, has a restaurant.