Out Westgate Baptist Chapel, in Bury St Edmunds, has had a number of uses since it was built in 1840

The recent news that an application to create a mosque at 15a, Out Westgate has raised eyebrows and some concerns – not least about car parking – is not surprising.

The applicant, Bury St Edmunds Islamic Cultural Organisation (BICO), is a not-for-profit organisation based in Bury St Edmunds.

It was formed as a charity in February 2014, emerging from the old remnants of the Suffolk Muslim Association. Its aim was to create an organisation that would advance and cultivate the spiritual growth of the community via its Mosque.

However, when this building opened for a different form of religious worship on April 21 1840 (date on the façade) it, too, raised questions, because of a schism of the then well-attended Garland Street Baptist Church, which had opened some six years earlier.

There were several members of that church who disagreed with the interpretation of that faith as preached by the charismatic pastor, Cornelius Elven there, although they were happy for him to preach at the newly-created Rehoboth Baptist Chapel to raise funds.

This new chapel, in what was then known as Westgate Road, cost £800 to build.

Its strange name came from the bible in Genesis 26:22, when Isaac ordered a new well to be dug because of disputes over who owned the wells. When the new well had been dug Isaac called it Rehoboth and said: “The Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land”.

So in that context it would seem that this name means enlargement or expansion relating to the Baptist church.

Not as successful as it would like to have been, the chapel was disbanded but the congregation reformed in 1877.

From 1898 it endured a long period of trouble and finally closed in 1952. As a redundant chapel it did have quite a spacious area and was taken over by the Miro Press, run by the Allum brothers, until the company moved up to Western Way.

The next incumbents were Rees, Prior & Associates Architects, purchasing it in 1989 when it was known as Mount Zion House, from The Evangelical Trust.

The place was modernised into four self-contained business units and an extension at the rear added.

At this time a couple of graves were found, a strange story concerning one of the draughtsmen working late at night came about after then. Although left in situ it would seem that the occupant of one of the graves did not take kindly to the building work as the architect sitting at his desk late at night felt a chill in the air as if someone was watching him.

After Rees & Co left in 2009 the building eventually went back to its origins – that of evangelism.

West Suffolk Vineyard Church which met at one time at the KEGS school, in Spring Lane, for Sunday services had its offices here at one time (they are now in Northern Way).

So, it would seem the wheel has now gone full circle.

— Martyn Taylor’s latest book, Bury St Edmunds Through Time Revisited, is widely available.