Former Unitarian Chapel

SD5429NW 941-1/10/319

PRESTON CHURCH STREET(North side) Former Unitarian Chapel

09/04/74

GV II Unitarian chapel. 1717, enlarged and altered in C19; now derelict. Red brick in English garden wall bond, mostly covered with scored render; slate roof. L-plan, set back from the street with the main range at right-angles to it, an apse at the south end and a short wing attached at the north end of the west side. The main range is single-storey with 3 rectangular windows under round-headed arches linked by a thin impost band which is interrupted and raised slightly in each arch, the centre and right-hand arches containing lunettes and the left blind or blocked. The roof has small skylights, and a ventilator on the ridge. The south end has a 5-sided apse with round-headed windows; the east side, which is not rendered, as 3 segmental-headed windows, and lunettes over the first two of these, and near the north end a small chimney breaking the eaves. The short wing on the west side is of 2 low storeys and has a doorway close to the angle, with a doorcase of engaged Tuscan columns with entablature and cornice, a blocked window above, one smaller window on each floor to the left, and roof of graduated slates. Continued to the west of this is a large late C19 or early C20 red brick 2-storey 5-window range which has large windows with altered glazing.

INTERIOR not inspected.

History: first Nonconformist chapel built in Preston (patron Sir Henry Hoghton), originally known as Presbyterian chapel, and now the oldest place of worship in the town.

Listing NGR: SD5444029621