Former Methodist Church

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SO9198NW 895-1/11/216

DARLINGTON STREET (East side) Former Methodist Church

(Formerly listed as METHODIST CHURCH)

03-FEB-77

GV II*

Methodist church. 1900-1901, with late C19 tower to rear. By Arthur Marshall. Brick with ashlar ground floor and dressings; slate roof. Baroque style. Two storeys; three bays. Ground floor has channelled rustication; top entablature with central pediment and flanking cupolas. Ground floor has square windows with triple keystones and small-paned casements; first floor has central Venetian window with rusticated Ionic half-columns and rusticated archivolt and large keystone with cartouche, balustraded apron, and similar windows to end bays with small-paned glazing and open-segmented pediments. Paired round-headed entrances have Ionic trumeau, deep bracketed cornice and panelled reveals, with central dedication stone. Cupolas on square bases have hollow-chamfered angles and channelled rustication, two-light openings with lunettes with keys and broken segmental pediments above entablatures, copper domical vaults with finials.

Left return to School Street is similar, six bays, the second bay wider and breaking forward under pediment, as does sixth bay. Rock-faced basement with blocked windows; ground floor windows with triple keystones, four narrow lights to second bay; second bay of first floor has Venetian window; top balustraded parapet. Copper dome toward east end has round drum with channelled rustication; four round-headed windows in rusticated aedicules between 6-bay glazed colonnades, all with decorative glazing. Tower to end has chanelled rustication to ground floor; apron panelling, sill course and cornice to first floor, two round panels above and pediment; short pyramidal roof with wrought-iron cresting; paired panelled pilasters; two segmental-headed windows to first floor; entrance with panelled pilasters and bracketed pediment; similar return. Right return utilitarian.

INTERIOR has three-bay tunnel vault with groin vaulted aisles; semi-circular balcony on Tuscan columns has entablature and balustrade; Ionic columns to vault; dome on piers with flat Ionic pilasters and mosaic pendentives, rich plasterwork and glazed panels; gallery taken across tunnel-vaulted transepts, apse with organ behind large pulpit and semi-circular rail; four hexagonal chandeliers and stained glass window. Foundation stone from former church with brass plate of 1824 in vestry.

The parish room dating from the additions of the 1870s has Corinthian pilasters and pedimental surrounds to the windows and wall panels.

(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Staffordshire: London: 1974-: P.316).

Listing NGR: SO9114698594