Methodist Church And Attached Railings

Methodist church, now recording studios, designed by Thomas Lainson and built by John Fielder in 1873 (plans dated 1 March 1872). The building is constructed of red and brown brick set in English bond with stone dressings and light red and white brick. The roofs are of slate, with the tower roof finished in lead.

The church follows a plan of a continuous nave and sanctuary of three bays, with a vestry positioned at the ritual south-east corner. A three-stage tower rises at the south-west corner, marking the main entrance, with a stair turret at the north-west corner. Between the tower and stair turret stands an open porch of three bays with a slate lean-to roof. The design adapts Italian Romanesque forms in characteristic High Victorian manner.

The east end features two round-arched lights with chamfered brick jambs, stone sills and voussoirs, and stone drip moulds with floral stops above each window. A blocked roundel in stone sits in the gable above. The remaining elevations repeat the motif of paired round-arched lights under brick relieving arches, with varied details and materials throughout.

The south-east vestry is a single-storey structure with four round-arched lights in stone, now partially blocked, unified by a relieving arch in light and dark brick. The south elevation displays three pairs of coupled round-arched windows with chamfered brick jambs and subordered arches in stone. Stone shafts with ballflower capitals separate each pair of lights, and a white and light red brick relieving arch sits above. A continuous frieze of stylized flowers runs along the window sill, while basement windows have brick camber-arched lintels.

The south-west bell tower rises in three stages, square in plan with a pyramidal roof splaying to a short octagonal spire. Triangular dormers with bell louvres project from each of the eight faces. A gabled porch to the south contains a round-arched entrance, with a window in the west face composed of two round-arched lights separated by a shaft with a cushion capital, set in a flush stone surround with incised decorative patterns. All remaining windows in this tower are round-arched. A stone coved cornice and brick corbel table sit below a parapet of light red and white bricks.

The west elevation presents an entry porch between the south-west tower and the north-west stair turret, featuring a round-arched arcade of three bays supported by columns with pink granite shafts and moulded stone abaci. Three round-arched windows above are linked by a common architrave, with former hood moulding stops featuring naturalistic ornament. The round-arched west entrance is subordered with moulded brick, and its stone tympanum bears carved roundels depicting the Paschal Lamb and flowers surrounded by grape vine. A round-arched window appears on either side of the entrance, with paired camber-arched windows serving the basement area.

A round-arched door is set into the west face of the stair turret. Above it stand three stepped round-arched lights, and the turret terminates in a corbel table and lean-to roof ending just below the gable kneelers. The gable is filled with a wheel window.

A stone plaque below the west window in the first stage of the tower bears a partially obscured inscription reading: "This memorial stone was laid by Daniel Pratt ?Soui??, October 7th, A.D. 1873, the Rev. Ieho? Martin, Pastor, Thos. Lainson Arch., John Fielder Builder, Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us".

A timber-framed roof survives and can be inspected from the top-floor flat. The church is accompanied by attached railings.