Seven Kings Methodist Church, churchyard gates and piers

Seven Kings Methodist Church, Churchyard Gates and Piers

Seven Kings Methodist Church is a red brick building laid in Flemish bond with stone banding and stone dressings, with slate roofs. It was designed in a Free Perpendicular Gothic style with Art Nouveau details.

The church plan comprises a nave with a south entrance lobby, chancel, east and west aisles, east and west transepts, a south-west corner tower, south porch, and a pair of vestries with stairs to the north-west and north-east. An undercroft containing the Sunday school lies beneath the church. Entrances to the tower and vestry on the west side are reached via concrete bridges due to the slope of the ground.

The south elevation features a large five-light Perpendicular window with ogee moulding, ballflower stops and panel tracery with cusped lights. The porch has a moulded four-centre arch with ballflower stops and a traceried tympanum, with plank doors decorated with elaborate Art Nouveau strap hinges. To the right is a tapering square turret (a disguised flue) with moulded faces and a louvred top with stone hoodmould. The slightly tapering three-stage tower has diagonal buttresses, an open parapet, stone gargoyles, and a metal shingled spire with a weathervane. Traceried windows with four-centred arches light the top stage. The west entrance to the tower has a moulded segmental arch with blind tracery to the tympanum and doors with similar hingework to the south porch. The aisles have square-headed three-light windows with cusped cinquefoil heads, and lancets to the south end and south-east return. The five-light transept windows are of similar design to the south window but with curved stops. Mullioned windows light the undercroft and vestries. The north elevation has a central buttress flanked by narrow windows. Roofs feature overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends.

The interior nave has a hammer-beam roof with traceried spandrels supported on tapering square timber pillars with moulded capitals and iron tie-bars with wrought-iron decoration. The ceiling is plastered with cast-iron ventilation grilles. A gallery at the south end has a curved timber front with traceried panels. A four-centred arch divides the nave from the chancel at the north end. The chancel has a plain timber-boarded ceiling and matchboard dados. The arrangement of pews is largely complete apart from the removal of some curved pews on the west side; pew ends have heart-shaped Art Nouveau style cut-outs and most retain original brass fittings and numbers. An elaborate pulpit on a timber dais features traceried panelling, brass balustrades and lectern, and Art Nouveau details including inset enamelled hearts. The chancel contains 1920s choir stalls with traceried panelling and an organ. Art Nouveau brass fittings and coloured glass are found throughout doors and windows. A brass First World War memorial plaque stands to the west of the chancel arch. Stairs to the north-west lobby have Gothic newel posts.

The Sunday school in the undercroft comprises a large central hall with a stage at the north end (now boarded up but surviving) and dais at the south end. The ceiling is supported by steel joists on square cast-iron piers. To the north of the main hall are an infants room, classroom, kitchen and concrete staircases at the north-east and north-west corners. Original doors (some with lettering) and cupboards survive.

Ornate wrought-iron gates and piers mark the south entrance to the churchyard. Railings and piers flank the two concrete bridges. Gates protect the tower entrance. Other sections of boundary railings are modern replacements and not of special interest.