Church Overview

Paisley Methodist Central Hall is a magnificent Edwardian building, built in the Free Renaissance style on a prominent corner street site facing the gates of Paisley Abbey. Designed by Scottish architects John Watson and David Salmond, this beautiful three storey blonde ashlar building opened its doors to the people of Paisley on the 10th Sept 1908.

Methodist central halls, such as this, were intended during the great age of the temperance movement to provide community facilities for wholesome public entertainment as well as Sunday worship and religious teaching. Paisley’s Central Hall is one of the few remaining such halls still owned and in use by the Methodist Church and is now the only one of its kind left in Scotland.

The ground floor front on Gauze Street is divided into eight bays, containing two shops that flank either side of the main doors leading to the halls above, with a further eleven bays on Smithhills Street. The shops still possess their elegant original frontages. Visitors taking the time to gaze up will also see Watson and Salmond’s elaborate decorative stone furnishing scheme and ornate window casements still in place.

The building above contains a series of small and large halls with a large auditorium that seats over 700 people on the first and second floors and this is where worship takes place. In 2014 the original wooden seats in the central area on the first floor were removed and replaced with modern, more comfortable seating.  Windows and roof lights are decorated with Art Nouveau stained-glass depictions of the heads of winged angels while the pulpit and lectern falls feature butterflies to represent eternal life. The pipe organ dates from 1885 and was purchased from Queen’s Park High Church in Glasgow in 1925. Sadly, it is no longer playable and was superseded by a digital organ purchased in 1984 that now provides musical accompaniment for services and concerts.

On the second floor there is a heritage room sharing the building’s history, the story of local Methodism and accounts of the positive contribution its congregation have made to Paisley for well over a century. Many of the other spaces inside Paisley Central Hall, including the main auditorium and Lesser Hall, are still available for hire for a variety of community uses and are regularly rented for performances, rehearsal rooms, club spaces and more. Contact the church office directly for further details.

Services

Sundays: 11.00am.

Opening Arrangements

Open daily by arrangement. For hall lets please call Ian Patrick on 07793 241742

Disclaimer

The information about churches in Scotland’s Churches Scheme has been provided by the congregations or taken from the Historic Scotland list and published sources, in particular, the Buildings of Scotland volumes and the RIAS Illustrated Architectural Guides. To contact this specific church please complete the Contact this Church form above. The information is not authoritative; please contact Scotland’s Churches Trust to let us know of any errors or omissions.