Jalan Imbi Chapel, Kuala Lumpur

Jalan Imbi Chapel (14 January, 2010)


Jalan Imbi Chapel (GPS: 3.14615, 101.71485) is a church of the brethren assembly at Jalan Imbi, in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. Despite its name, the church is entered via Jalan Walter Grenier. The road, Jalan Walter Grenier, is said to have been named after one of the elders of the church.

Jalan Imbi Chapel traces its history all the way back to the late 19th century. In 1891 Christian missionaries had arrived from Plymouth, England to do mission work in Kuala Lumpur. As such, Jalan Imbi Chapel is second only to the Farquhar Street Assembly in the length of its local history (not counting Gospel Hall Kuala Lumpur).

As with the Catholics and the Anglicans, the brethren missionaries were also instrumental in the founding of mission schools, as a means of spreading the Gospel. The missionaries at Bluff Road founded the Bukit Bintang Girls' School in 1893, making it the oldest school in Kuala Lumpur. The school, in its present incarnation, is known today as SMK Seri Bintang Utara, and is located now at Taman Shamelin Perkasa in Cheras. Its original site at Bukit Bintang is occupied by Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

Just as the Farquhar Street Assembly in Penang becomes the present-day Burmah Road Gospel Hall, Jalan Imbi Chapel was originally Bluff Road Gospel Hall, built in 1897, in present-day Bukit Aman. It relocated to Venning Road (present-day Jalan Perdana) in 1922, where it remained until 1962, when the site at Venning Road was appropriated by the post-Independence government for the construction of Masjid Negara. The assembly was given a new site at Jalan Imbi. While the new church building was being constructed, the members met at the (now demolished) Bukit Bintang Girls' School.

Jalan Imbi Chapel was completed and had its first meeting there on 28 July, 1962¹. In addition to the hall, there is also a library, a recreation room and kitchen.

Jalan Imbi Chapel was actively engaged in church planting in the 1970s and 80s, just as the population of Kuala Lumpur exploded outward and into the suburbs. It can be said that the now autonomous assemblies including Bangsar Gospel Centre, Cheras Gospel Centre, Ampang Gospel Centre, Melawati Gospel Centre, Taman Tun Dr Ismail Gospel Centre and Setapak Gospel Centre all trace their roots to here.

Today the English-speaking assembly at Jalan Imbi Chapel is 250-strong. In addition, there is also a Chinese-speaking assembly of some 50 believers.

Jalan Imbi Chapel (8 July, 2016)


Venning Road Gospel Hall on the site of Masjid Negara, before the latter was constructed.

Jalan Imbi Chapel is on the Map of Churches in Kuala Lumpur

360° View of Jalan Imbi Chapel on Google Maps Street View

Jalan Imbi Chapel

References

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