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‘Do you want me to go and open it?’ responded the listener.

‘Yes!’
‘Then, I must do it my way. Otherwise, it would be like putting me into a strait-jacket.’

The first Sunday in Bunyan’s town was begun with a prayer meeting in the open, following an all-night’s work preparing for use, and carrying seats to fill, a skating ring which had not been available till 11.30pm on the Saturday night.

Inside the corrugated iron building a noisy crowd gathered for all the meetings, so rowdy that even when a man with a cornet was instructed to blow his hardest his efforts to gain attention were all in vain!

The mayor’s letter in the local paper asking people not to attend the gatherings had caused curious people to tramp in for miles from the villages around.

The second Sunday was wet all day, yet a thousand people gathered for the night meeting, which again was a failure owing to the sound of rain on the roof like the noise of a hundred side drums. At last nominal Christians, gamblers and drunkards knelt at the Mercy Seat, quickly got into uniform and joined in the street processions.

The following October(1888) the Founder visited Bedford to lay the foundation-stone of the Army’s own building and, in connection with the event, the mayor himself drove to the officers’ house in his carriage and pair. ‘We of the town of Bedford, are deeply humbled,’ he began. ‘Your work has been discussed in a committee meeting, and we recognise that while others have been talking for twenty-six years, half a dozen maidens have come and done it in three months. I apologize for our attitude towards you and offer you a donation of ten pounds for your work.’

Incredibly, the new building was ready for use by February 1889 and designated the Bedford Congress Hall.

In 1977 the original hall was replaced by the current Bedford Congress Hall which now stands in Commercial Road. This building, rectangular rather than the original octagonal, nevertheless reflects the style of the first Salvation Army hall in Bedford, by utilising tiered seating and a central arena.

The Bedford Congress Hall Corps of The Salvation Army holds regular open-air evangelical meetings on Sunday afternoons during the summer months on the Embankment of the Great River Ouse.
This must surely be one of the more attractive settings for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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