Kandy Methodist Church

Kandy Methodist Church stands on Yatinuwara Veediya in the city centre, on what was known in the nineteenth century as Brownrigg Street. Its restrained gabled form and arched openings suit the nonconformist tradition, and a government gazette notification of 8 July 2005 declared it an archaeological protected monument. The church remains part of an active congregation.

Methodist work in Kandy began in 1836, when a European missionary arrived to open a station. He was recalled to Colombo the following year, and the work passed to a figure named Poulier. In 1839 the missionary Spence Hardy came to Kandy and fitted a room in his own residence as a temporary chapel, and it was not until the 1860s that the first Methodist Society in the town was formed. Rev. J. Bough arrived as missionary-in-charge in 1867, and through his efforts and those of local laymen the present chapel was built and opened for worship in 1871.

A small hall attached to the church carries an inscribed construction date of 1897, marking a later extension to the original building.