Elim Tabernacle And Attached Railings

Elim Tabernacle and Attached Railings, Union Street, Brighton

A Nonconformist meeting house built between March and August 1825, designed by Charles Augustin Busby and Amon Henry Wilds as a Presbyterian meeting house to replace Brighton's first Nonconformist chapel, which had been erected in 1688.

The building is constructed in Greek Revival style with stucco scored to imitate ashlar on the front elevation, while regularly coursed cobbles and red brick appear on the return to Meeting House Lane, where window dressings are also of brick. The roof is obscured by a parapet with a facing gable on a north-south axis at its centre section.

The rectangular plan comprises a single storey to the centre section with two storeys to each end bay, the return, and the rear. The front elevation displays a seven-window range, with a four-window range to the return. The main front elevation angles back from the corner with Meeting House Lane to the party wall in Union Street, a novel arrangement that permits a longer view of the temple front than would otherwise be possible in this narrow twitten.

The front is treated as three bays with a tall centre featuring a three-window range articulated as a portico formed by a tetrastyle pilastrade topped by a pediment. The pilasters narrow noticeably from top to bottom with radically simplified and stylized Doric capitals. An entablature with triglyph and metope frieze surmounts the portico with an ornamented soffit; the entablature extends across the side bays without the frieze and ornament. The walls flanking the portico are set back slightly and framed by pairs of Tuscan pilasters. All window openings are flat arched. Windows and doors from the second to the sixth range batter from top to bottom in Egyptian fashion with eared architraves, whilst those under the portico have plain panelled spandrels. A continuous plinth runs across the elevation. The left-hand bay is notably narrower than the right. The front wall is slightly battered, one of several refinements tailoring the building to this restricted site.

Formal entrances occur in the second and sixth window ranges, each with a panelled overdoor and a six-pane overlight of original design, above which is a plain panel. Subordinate entrances are positioned in the first and seventh window ranges; the four-panel door of the latter is of original design with upper panels replaced by glazing in the late 19th century. The glazing bars to the windows under the portico are of original design, though late 19th or early 20th century glass has been inserted. The corner range is unbattered and projects beyond the rest of the elevation, its somewhat segmental plan smoothing the corner turn. The return features three round-arched windows with eight-over-eight sashes and semicircular transoms of original design. First-floor windows are camber arched with twelve-over-twelve sashes of original design. Round-arched windows appear to the rear.

Cast-iron railings enclose a narrow area at the foot of the front wall. Several memorials are affixed to this front: a stone dated 1688 survives from the original meeting house in the corner range; above is a rectangular panel reading "Glynn Vivian Miners' Mission. Opened May 1905 to the Memory of God". Embedded in the left Tuscan pilaster is a tablet reading "Built A.D. 1688. Repaired and enlarged 1810". A stone memorial tablet to the left of the portico commemorates Henry Varley (1835-1912), an Evangelical missionary in London and abroad who preached in this church from 1909 until his death and for whom the officers and congregation of the Miners Mission erected the memorial.

Interior

The ritual east wall is divided into three bays by a blind round-arched arcade, with the centre bay broader than the sides. Three round-arched windows occupy the upper reaches of the hall. A semicircular gallery fills the remainder of the hall, supported by eight evenly spaced columns with palm-and-acanthus leaf capitals, possibly dating to the late 19th century. Rising from the parapeted gallery front are eight further columns of the Composite order carrying an entablature from which springs a barrel vaulted ceiling terminating in a hemisphere at the ritual west end. Stairs to the gallery are located in the ritual north-east corner, with curving gallery stairs in each quadrant space. The only remaining furnishings are a late 19th or early 20th century reading desk with turned balusters and a 20th century baptismal tub set into the floor in front of it. The hall is entered by three flat-arched entrances.

Historical Context

The design has been misattributed to Amon Wilds, though the plans were signed by his son, Amon Henry Wilds, and Busby, with Busby responsible for drawing up the plans now held in the Royal Institute of British Architects' Drawings Collection. The design became associated with Wilds following the firm's dissolution in June 1825. The original 1688 chapel became an Independent Chapel in the 18th century. In 1878 it was taken over by the Union Congregation, which merged twenty years later with the Queen Congregational Church to form the Union Free Church. In 1905 the building was sold to the Miners' Mission. From 1927 until 1988 it served as the Elim Tabernacle of the Church of the 4 Square Gospel. It has remained disused since 1988.