Call to preserve 1900s hall that housed Que Club

A listed Methodist hall that had a second life as a music venue for famous acts in the 1990s and 2000s has been placed on a list of endangered buildings.

The Methodist Central Hall, a red brick and terracotta building in Birmingham's city centre, first opened in 1903 and became the Que Club in 1989.

The club hosted gigs by David Bowie and Blur, as well as acid house rave nights, before it closed in 2017.

The Victorian Society has put the local landmark on its annual list of endangered buildings, voicing concern that it had "slipped into decline" since the venue closed and faced an "uncertain" future.

"The old Que needs a new life," actor Griff Rhys Jones, the society's president, said in a statement.

The charity campaigns to preserve Victorian and Edwardian buildings in England and Wales, as well as advising planning authorities on proposals that could affect listed buildings from those eras.

Around 100 Methodist Central Halls were built between 1886 and 1945 in cities across the UK in order to create venues where concerts, films, comedy events, and prayers were on offer, according to the Victorian Society.

The halls were part of a drive to steer city-dwellers away from pubs and alcohol, the society added.

Birmingham's Grade II-listed hall, on Corporation Street, is partly known for the terracotta reliefs around its porch, which depict scenes from the life of Methodism's founder, John Wesley.

The Victorian Society said the building was currently on the market after a project to convert it into a hotel had stalled despite receiving planning permission in 2022.

"It needs friends and it needs some noise," Jones said.

The building is also on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register, which notes that the building is vacant except for retail businesses on its ground floor and its "condition has deteriorated following recent storms".

Others on the society's list of endangered buildings include:

• Bosworth Park Water Tower, Market Bosworth, Leicestershire
• Torquay Pavilion, Torquay, Devon
• Birley Spa, Hackenthorpe, Sheffield
• 33 – 39 St James Street, King's Lynn, Norfolk
• Former Marine Hotel, Penarth, Glamorgan
• Gibson Street Baths, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
• Aldermaston Court, Aldermaston, Berkshire
• Edgerton Cemetery Chapel, Huddersfield
• Gwalia, West Derby, Liverpool

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