diff --git a/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py b/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
index 82586e3de..f15903f86 100644
--- a/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
+++ b/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
@@ -103,11 +103,15 @@ class MatrixFederationHttpClient(object):
         )
 
     @defer.inlineCallbacks
-    def _create_request(self, destination, method, path_bytes,
-                        body_callback, headers_dict={}, param_bytes=b"",
-                        query_bytes=b"", retry_on_dns_fail=True,
-                        timeout=None, long_retries=False):
-        """ Creates and sends a request to the given url
+    def _request(self, destination, method, path,
+                 body_callback, headers_dict={}, param_bytes=b"",
+                 query_bytes=b"", retry_on_dns_fail=True,
+                 timeout=None, long_retries=False):
+        """ Creates and sends a request to the given server
+        Args:
+            destination (str): The remote server to send the HTTP request to.
+            method (str): HTTP method
+            path (str): The HTTP path
 
         Returns:
             Deferred: resolves with the http response object on success.
@@ -115,6 +119,9 @@ class MatrixFederationHttpClient(object):
             Fails with ``HTTPRequestException``: if we get an HTTP response
             code >= 300.
         """
+        destination = destination.encode("ascii")
+        path_bytes = path.encode("ascii")
+
         headers_dict[b"User-Agent"] = [self.version_string]
         headers_dict[b"Host"] = [destination]
 
@@ -288,10 +295,10 @@ class MatrixFederationHttpClient(object):
             producer = _JsonProducer(json_data)
             return producer
 
-        response = yield self._create_request(
-            destination.encode("ascii"),
+        response = yield self._request(
+            destination,
             "PUT",
-            path.encode("ascii"),
+            path,
             body_callback=body_callback,
             headers_dict={"Content-Type": ["application/json"]},
             long_retries=long_retries,
@@ -333,10 +340,10 @@ class MatrixFederationHttpClient(object):
             )
             return _JsonProducer(data)
 
-        response = yield self._create_request(
-            destination.encode("ascii"),
+        response = yield self._request(
+            destination,
             "POST",
-            path.encode("ascii"),
+            path,
             body_callback=body_callback,
             headers_dict={"Content-Type": ["application/json"]},
             long_retries=long_retries,
@@ -386,10 +393,10 @@ class MatrixFederationHttpClient(object):
             self.sign_request(destination, method, url_bytes, headers_dict)
             return None
 
-        response = yield self._create_request(
-            destination.encode("ascii"),
+        response = yield self._request(
+            destination,
             "GET",
-            path.encode("ascii"),
+            path,
             query_bytes=query_bytes,
             body_callback=body_callback,
             retry_on_dns_fail=retry_on_dns_fail,
@@ -434,10 +441,10 @@ class MatrixFederationHttpClient(object):
             self.sign_request(destination, method, url_bytes, headers_dict)
             return None
 
-        response = yield self._create_request(
-            destination.encode("ascii"),
+        response = yield self._request(
+            destination,
             "GET",
-            path.encode("ascii"),
+            path,
             query_bytes=query_bytes,
             body_callback=body_callback,
             retry_on_dns_fail=retry_on_dns_fail