11 Castle Street

The building at 11 Castle Street is a former Congregational chapel, constructed in 1837 and designed by JJ Cooper. It was subsequently converted to retail use around 1956 and then to a public house in the late 1990s.

The chapel is built of brick with a stucco principal elevation, and has a slate roof. The rectangular plan is orientated north-south.

The north elevation, facing Castle Street, is designed in a neoclassical style using stucco. At ground level, the three central bays feature a recessed modern shopfront with a pair of columns flanking the central entrance, and two half-columns set against the sides. A partial Doric entablature with triglyphs and metopes sits above the shopfront. The two end bays are of channelled stucco, containing large, round-arched openings with modern fixed windows. The first floor has five slightly recessed, round-arched openings, also containing fixed windows with applied glazing bars and a low-level casement. The three central arches spring from simple moulded pilasters, with a raised panel beneath each window. The two outer bays are flanked by pairs of larger pilasters with Soanian incisions, and have recessed panels beneath the windows. These pilasters extend to a simple cornice and a parapet, topped by a central pediment containing a circular window.

The east and west elevations each have five tall, first-floor round-arched openings, each containing a fixed window with extensive glazing bars and a casement. The west elevation's second bay from the south contains a doorway leading to an emergency staircase. There are likely corresponding round-arched openings at ground floor level on both elevations though these are mostly hidden from view.

A full-width brick projection extends to the rear, south, elevation, spanning two lower storeys, with modern doors at ground-floor level. On the rear elevation of the chapel's main body, a large chimney stack rises through the roof ridge. Small, round-arched openings, now blocked, are located on either side of the chimney stack at a high level.