1 And 2, Hilldrop Road

Nos. 1 and 2 Hilldrop Road consist of a former Baptist Church and church hall, now a hostel, built around 1853-4 by C.G.Searle. The building is constructed of dressed Kentish ragstone with stone dressings, and has a roof of artificial slate. It comprises a nave and chancel under a single roof, linked to a two-storey hall at the east end, and featuring two octagonal towers at the west end. The north and south elevations have five-and-a-half bays, with pointed-arched windows of three lights, incorporating transoms, trefoil-headed lights, and rectilinear tracery. Gabled buttresses with offsets flank these windows. The westernmost bay features a four-centred-arched entrance with a pointed-arched window of two lights positioned above. The west end includes a central entrance under a four-centred arch, featuring engaged columns and foliage capitals, along with foliage mouldings to the archivolt. An ogee hoodmould with a quatrefoil adorns the tympanum, above which stands a four-centred-arched window with six lights, a transom, trefoil-headed lights, and rectilinear tracery. The two flanking octagonal towers have a four-centred arch to the ground floor entrance, trefoiled lancets above, and their original roofs are missing. A storey band is situated at the first floor and gable level, topped by a central gable with openwork parapet and a corbelled pinnacle at the apex. The attached wing at the east end features a single-storey gabled porch with a four-centred arch to its entrance. A two-window range linking block with a parapet sits above the porch, connected to a two-storey gabled wing, originally the church hall. The Hilldrop Road elevation of this wing presents flat-arched, three-light windows to two storeys, with top lights, and exhibits walls constructed of dressed Kentish ragstone, while the other sides are of yellow brick. Interior alterations carried out in 1990 for use as a hostel resulted in a largely changed interior, though an original staircase with an iron rail and balusters remains in the linking wing. Two quasi-king-post roof trusses with cusped beams are visible at the west end of the church.