Bethesda Methodist Chapel

The Bethesda Methodist Chapel, located on Albion Street in Hanley, Stoke on Trent, was originally built in 1819, with significant additions in 1859 and 1887. The chapel is constructed of brick, with a stuccoed facade and a slate roof. It is two storeys high.

The front facade features a pedimented entrance front to Albion Street, with a rusticated lower storey and a full-length portico supported by paired, fluted Corinthian shafts. It has paired doorways to the left and right, with inner doors framed by entablatures on consoles, and outer doorways with tall architraves. A central window is also flanked by entablatures supported on paired consoles; above it is a Palladian window set within a central pedimented gable. Other windows are sash windows with margin lights. The rear of the chapel is constructed of Flemish bond brickwork with buff headers, featuring five bays and a shallow curved apse. First-floor windows have margin lights with stuccoed heads and expressed keystones, which are currently blocked. A raised section to the cornice on the central section of the apse is decorated with panelling.

The interior features a continuous raking gallery with a plaster vaulted soffit supported by cast-iron columns. The gallery balustrade is panelled, above a minimal Doric entablature with widely-spaced paterae. A large organ, housed in a baroque case, dominates the gallery on the street side. Below the organ is an octagonal pulpit reached by two opposed flights of stairs with cast-iron balustrades and hardwood handrails. The pulpit is situated within a contemporary communion rail, constructed of similar materials to the stair balustrades, which defines an oval sanctuary. These interior features, created by Robert Scrivener in 1856, are supplemented by half-glazed timber screens that separate the stairwells on the street front from the main body of the chapel. The interior retains its original pews and minor fittings, with the exception of a replacement ceiling. A burial crypt below the chapel contains a monument to Rev. William Driver, dated 1831.