Olive Tree Branch, Luton
Olive Tree Branch, Luton
The Olive Branch on Montrose Avenue, Luton, is the former St Margaret’s Methodist Church, now one site of the Olive Tree Church, a Local Ecumenical Partnership of Methodist and Baptist congregations.
- Location
- Luton, Bedfordshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Bedfordshire
- City / town
- Luton
- Address
- Montrose Avenue, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU3 1HT
- Postcode
- LU3 1HT
- Built
- 1937 (opened 1 December 1937)
- Architect
- Franklin and Briars; built by the Alliance Building Company
- Denomination
- Local Ecumenical Partnership
- Parish
- Olive Tree Church (St Margaret's Methodist / Blenheim Crescent Baptist LEP)
- Style
- Inter-war Methodist
- Opening hours
- The church can be accessed most days through the central lobby as there are regularly people on site connected to a nursery and local 'Oasis' charity, though prior notice is preferable if outside Sunday worship. Please contact us.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Non-accessible toilets in church
Overview
The church’s own history, quoting T. Hewitt’s chapter in Impact! (1962), records that Methodists bought land at Montrose Avenue and Blenheim Crescent in 1925. After Methodist Union in 1932, trustees exchanged that plot in April 1935 for the corner of Montrose Avenue and Saint Margaret’s Avenue. Franklin and Briars prepared plans for a church and Sunday school, approved in May 1936; the Alliance Building Company’s tender was accepted later that year. Forty-six foundation stones were laid on 17 March 1937. The intended opening of 27 October was postponed; the Sunday school and church opened on 1 December 1937. The building cost £12,504 and left a debt of nearly £6,000, paid off in eleven years.
An organ was installed in 1953. Alterations included a room of 1965, a stained-glass window and stone cross in 1969, and kitchen works in 1981 and 2002. The Olive Tree partnership now uses Blenheim Crescent for Sunday worship and this Montrose Avenue building as a community resource, nursery and Oasis drop-in, with occasional services, weddings and funerals. The building is not on the National Heritage List for England.