Swanley is a town in Kent, 16 miles southeast of Central London, adjacent to the M25. It is home to the main Plymouth Brethren Christian Church "City Hall" meeting room for the approximately 350 members of the London Brethren community, located on Leydenhatch Lane in the northwest of the town. The site has been in Brethren use for more than 30 years, becoming the main London City Hall following a large-scale redevelopment between 2015 and 2019. Prior to that redevelopment, the main London meeting room was in Beckenham.
The Leydenhatch Lane site is operated by the Manor Gospel Trust. There are approximately 200 Gospel Trusts in the UK and around 700 worldwide. Each operates the meeting rooms for its local Brethren community. Trust accounts are lodged with the Charity Commission.
The Manor Gospel Trust Trustees
The Manor Gospel Trust holds considerable assets — valued at over £20 million — comprising five areas of land and buildings across the Leydenhatch Lane site and four residential properties on the same lane. One of the residential properties, Wilburton, was purchased before 2000 and sits adjacent to the meeting room entrance. It has been subject to a planning application for renovation, though the application was submitted in the name of Donovan Payne rather than any of the trustees.
Lewis Cottages
The remaining three residential properties are Lewis Cottages — part of a small row of four terraced properties adjacent to the meeting room on the meeting room side of Leydenhatch Lane. The Manor Gospel Trust owns numbers 1, 3 and 4. Number 2 remains privately owned by the Rowland family.
All three purchases were made after Leydenhatch Lane became the main London City Hall in 2019. Google Street View imagery shows that all three properties appear to have been left vacant since purchase, with numbers 3 and 4 showing significant visible deterioration over recent years.
It is relevant to note that Brethren members are not permitted to live in properties that share a wall with non-Brethren neighbours. Purchasing adjacent terraced properties serves an obvious purpose in that context. However, the goal of acquiring the surrounding area is not mentioned in any of the trust's planning applications — a pattern consistent across Gospel Trusts more broadly.
The irony of leaving residential properties empty and deteriorating — while the same charity's volunteers deliver food boxes to the homeless in Swanley — is difficult to ignore.
Open & Candid
If we were the Rowland family at Number 2, we would be concerned. The likely future buyer of a property in that position is the Manor Gospel Trust itself — and the trust is in no hurry. The deterioration of neighbouring properties does not improve the Rowlands' negotiating position.
The PPE Connection
The Manor Gospel Trust accounts show that the trust received a substantial donation during the relevant period — one that is likely to have originated, at least in part, from profits generated by the Unispace and Sante PPE contracts. Anthony Hazell, the lead trustee, was a central figure in Unispace's Covid contracting activity. The chain is therefore: UK Government PPE spend → Unispace/Sante profits → Hazell → Manor Gospel Trust → vacant residential properties on Leydenhatch Lane.
In one reading, UK taxpayers have indirectly helped fund the incremental acquisition of a residential street in Swanley by a Brethren charity.
Part Two of this series will examine Chippenham, where a key local amenity adjacent to the main City Hall meeting room was purchased by a Brethren member and subsequently sold to a Gospel Trust.