Church Of The Divine Unity And Durant Hall

The Church of the Divine Unity and Durant Hall is a Unitarian church and attached meeting room located at 30 Ellison Place in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was built between 1938 and 1940 and designed by the architectural firm Cackett, Burns Dick & Mackellar. The structure is made of concrete and steel, featuring brown brick cladding and reconstituted ashlar stone dressings, with flat concrete roofs.

The church has a vertical brick plinth, a square east tower, a nave with aisles, a west gallery, and a north porch. The main north front showcases a large recessed entrance with a reconstituted stone triple archway supported by four rectangular panelled columns and topped with a cornice. Simple iron railings and gates frame the entrance. The inner doorway has a moulded surround and double panelled doors, flanked by windows with plain ashlar surrounds. To the left, there are five tall rectangular windows in plain ashlar surrounds, and to the right, a smaller three-light casement window in a similar surround. The base of the tower features a single doorway, while the tower itself has very tall single windows on the north, west, and south fronts, topped with a set back vertical brick parapet and ashlar coping. The east end includes an entrance to Durant Hall with a plain brick surround and recessed double panelled doors, along with three windows with plain ashlar surrounds and flanking drainpipes. A projecting staircase tower on the right has two square windows on each of its four storeys. The south front was originally obscured by earlier buildings that have since been demolished.

Inside, the church features a nave with aisles that lack arcades, a raised raked gallery at the west end, and a slightly raised chancel with an organ chamber to the north and a vestry to the south. Notable interior fittings include original wooden pews with decorated bench ends, similar choir stalls, a large square wooden pulpit with inlaid wave bands and a moulded top, as well as a matching altar and reading desk. The church also has original globe light fittings, an abstract patterned reredos, a wooden organ case, glazed panel doors, and boxed heaters throughout. The nave and aisles boast fine square coffered ceilings, while Durant Hall and other rooms feature similarly high-quality interior fittings.