York Baptist Church

Baptist Church on Priory Street, York

Built in 1862 by architect William Peachey, this Baptist church is constructed of yellow-grey dressed stone on a plinth with grey ashlar chamfered plinth band and dressings. The roof is slate with stone coped gables.

The building comprises a 4-bay aisled nave with clerestory, articulated by gabled pilaster buttresses. A north-west entrance foyer and 2-stage north tower stand between similar dwarf buttresses, while vestry, offices and Sunday School rooms occupy the south-east end.

The north-west entrance features a central 4-centred moulded arch on colonnette shafts with annulets and foliate capitals. Beneath this is a square-headed doorway with 20th-century glazed double doors, surmounted by a tympanum containing a sunk spherical triangle carved in relief with trefoils. Above this sits a 3-light window in a 2-centred arch with traceried head and moulded sillstring on foliate stops. The gable end displays a blind trefoil enclosed in a moulded spherical triangle surround, with lancets flanking the central door.

At each end, original doors in 2-centred arches similar to the centre door have been altered to windows. The right one sits beneath a small cusped rose window in moulded surround. The left one occupies the ground stage of the north tower. On the north-east face, the ground stage opening is a trefoil-headed 1-light window. The second stage openings on both faces contain windows of paired trefoil-headed lights in 2-centred arches with traceried heads, set above moulded sillstrings. The tower parapet is panelled with shallow traceried mouldings over a moulded eaves string. All openings in the tower and north-west end have corbel-stopped hoodmoulds.

On the north-east side, the nave aisle features windows of paired trefoil-headed lights in 2-centred arches with traceried heads, beneath stepped triple trefoil-headed lights over a moulded sillstring interrupted by buttresses. The eaves course is moulded, and clerestory openings are plain glazed roundels beneath an eaves corbel table.

Further east, a double gabled front serves the office and school block. The left gable is surmounted by a bellcote, the right by a wrought-iron gable cross. The entrance occupies a shallow, steeply-gabled porch with a 2-centred arch on colonnettes with carved capitals and corbel-stopped hood. A square-headed 20th-century glazed door is deeply recessed beneath a tympanum carved with a sunken circular panel containing a central boss in high relief. The porch is flanked by paired lancet windows with blind heads relief-carved with corbel heads. On the first floor, a window of 3 trefoil-headed lancets is flanked by lancets similar to those on the ground floor, all with corbel-stopped hoods. In the gable end is a cinquefoiled oculus beneath a louvred lancet with hood.

In the second gable front, the ground floor window comprises 4 grouped trefoil-headed lancets. Above is a 4-centred window of 3 cusped lights with cusped quatrefoil tracery, over a moulded sillstring on foliate stops. Both have corbel-stopped hoodmoulds. The gable end contains a trefoil light in a moulded spherical triangle surround.

The interior is noted to contain a cast-iron gallery. The church has undergone later alterations since its original construction.