Bethel First United Church of Jesus Christ

The Bethel First United Church of Jesus Christ is a church of 1886, located on Victoria Road, Hyde Park, Leeds. It is a building of sandstone with gritstone dressings, brick and timber with stone details on the east and south sides, and a slate roof, built in the Gothic Revival style. The plan comprises a large church, its body set at a splayed angle with a basement to the rear.

The exterior features a two-bay portal accessed by steep steps, with shafted and pointed trefoil arches. Above this is a large five-light window with quatrefoil tracery, topped by a steep gable and flanked by buttresses capped with tall pinnacles. The foundation stones, dated 28 July 1886, are visible at the base of each buttress, having been laid by Mrs Harry Walker, Mrs James Mathers, Richard Ellis Esq JP, William Mart Esq, and Mrs James Wheatley. A narrow square tower with a louvred bell stage, corner pinnacles and a three-stage slated timber spire is set to the northeast. The right return displays brickwork with flush ashlar two- and three-light windows with trefoils, beneath a shallow roof and a narrow timber-framed clerestory with quatrefoil lights. A transept crossing wing has four-light mullioned windows with trefoil heads to the second floor.

Inside, the main doors open into a lobby with doors leading to gallery stairs and offices. Steps rise to an ornate composite floor decorated with fleurs-de-lis, and the coved ceiling has raised panels of vine scrolls. A timber partition with stained glass depicting bird and flower motifs separates the lobby from a galleried meeting room with cast-iron columns and an inserted ceiling. A stained-glass window in the east wall commemorates William Mart, 1840-1897, one of the church’s founders. Original pews and a dais with a carved Gothic Revival style balustrade remain. A gallery was not inspected.