The 1893 Primitive Methodist magazine contains a note recording the laying of the foundation stones for a new Central Church in Leyton . Although the plan included a new schoolroom as well as the chapel, in the short term the previous iron building they had been meeting in was dismantled and moved to the new site as temporary accommodation for the scholars. The April 1893 magazine tells us that the chapel was open, although they had to work hard to raise more funding.
The Victoria County History for Essex tells us more:
Primitive Methodism came to Leyton in the 1850s, but it made little progress until the 1880s, when Alfred Ives began a vigorous ministry there.
In 1867 the Prims were meeting in Grange Park Road and a small iron building was erected in Wilmot Road in 1868. With the opening of the permanent Leyton Tabernacle, Wilmot Road became redundant, and in 1894 was sold to the Strict Baptists.
Leyton Central Tabernacle, in High Road, Leyton, originated in 1883, when a group under Alfred Ives, minister of the Third London circuit, bought an iron church at the corner of Etchingham Road and Leyton (now High) Road, and formed a society. Apparently an undertaking was given by the Wesleyans of the Stratford circuit not to intrude in the neighbourhood.
In 1893 a permanent church, designed by James Steed in the Gothic style, was opened on a new site, the old site being considered unsuitable after a public house had been built opposite. The old site was sold, but the iron church was re-erected on the new site as a lecture hall and school.
The Tabernacle was badly damaged in the Second World War, but restored.
Reference
Primitive Methodist magazine 1893 page 60
Primitive Methodist magazine 1893 page 316
Victoria County History of Essex, accessed 20/06/2021 through British History online at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol6/pp223-233#p37
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