The first Methodist meeting place in Earlsdon was the old ribbon weaving shed, which also served as a Sunday School. By 1881 about eighty people were attending services there. The organising Trust, headed by Robert Waddington, decided they had enough money to get started on a proper chapel. They bought a plot of land on the opposite side of Cromwell Street and appointed young architect William Tomlinson, then living in Moor Street, to design a suitable building.
After further fundraising they chose a builder — Mr Beecham of Allesley, at £800, some £300 more than anticipated. On Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1884, the stone-laying ceremony took place. One of the Trustees wrote: ‘It was a gloriously fine day. The village was gay with flags and bunting and the school children with the school banners floating above their heads were assembled on a raised platform.’ Coventry MPs Eaton and Wills were present, and the total collected that day came to £122 6s 0d.
Sadly there was no great celebration when the congregation moved in, as a gas explosion in the old weaving shed forced them to use the new building before it was fully ready. For the next thirty-nine years it served as Earlsdon’s Methodist Church, until it was replaced by the new building on the corner of Albany Road and Earlsdon Avenue South in 1923.
The old chapel continued in use as a Sunday School for another seventy-six years, hosting bazaars, fetes, concerts, a youth club, scouts and guides, and even an army base during the war. When the Methodists finally vacated it in 1960, it was bought by the Criterion Theatre Company, which has thrived there ever since.