The Bethesda chapel was founded by Dublin Merchant William Smyth, nephew of the Bishop of the same name, in 1784. Its development was part of the evangelical movement in the Church of Ireland. It did not get episcopal recognition until 1825. The Bethesda Chapel was sometimes known as the Bethesda Mission, or the Bethesda Episcopal church. The chapel was burned down after a great storm in January 1839: a new chapel was built on the site, designed by Frederick Darley and opened in December 1840. The Bethesda Female Orphan School at 23 Upper Dorset Street was affiliated to the Chapel from 1787. In 1794, the Lock Penitentiary was opened by Mr. Walker: it housed females leaving Lock Hospital: as a result, it was sometimes called Locks Chapel. The penitentiary or asylum was funded by benefactors and by church collections; also its inmates made a living washing and mangling clothes. Arthur Guinness and his wife served on the governing committee of the Penitentiary, as did J.D. La Touche. Founder of Methodism, John Wesley preached at the Chapel on a number of occasions in April 1787, during his tour of Ireland. Following the death of William Smyth, the control of the Chapel was passed in 1794 to a board of five trustees, all members of the clergy. Chaplains to the Chapel, included Rev. Edward Smyth, Rev. William Mann, Rev. John Walker from 1793 until 1804, gave the Chapel a more Calvinistic ethos, other ministers at the church were Rev. Henry Maturin, Rev. Benjamin Williams Mathias, John Gregg, the noted preacher Rev. William Henry Krause,Rev. John Alcock AM,. and Rev. Charles H. H. Wright, D.D. In 1878, Rev. Ambrose WellesleyLeet D.D. was appointed to the Bethesda Church, Dublin. The evangelical hymn-writer Thomas Kelly was a trustee and preached at Bethesda. Bethesda ceased to be a Chapel and secularised in 1908, and in 1910 it was converted into a Cinema, under various names: Shanleys Picture Hall, The Dorset Picture Hall and The Plaza Cinema. It got a major facelift in the 1960s and in 1981 it closed as a cinema and became the National Waxworks museum, owned by former TD and SenatorDonie Cassidy. The site was demolished in 2005 and was redeveloped as a hotel.
