Methodist Chapel

SU 4767 NW 4/162 SU 4767 SW 6/162

NORTHBROOK STREET Methodist Chapel

30.9.77

GV II*

1837-8 (Pevsner, Berkshire p 181). Non-conformist chapel in quasi-Early English style (exterior only). Three bay front with projecting central entrance bay and five bay return. Bath stone ashlar. Welsh slate roof. Parapet with modillion brackets carried round to form coped gables at ends. Shallow buttresses with weathered offsets. Central entrance bay flanked by six-stage, octagonal buttress-turrets terminated by cupola with finials. Lancet windows with hood moulds: entrance front with three-light window and quatrefoil lunette in gable. Central arched entrance to porch with hollow moulding and ogee hood-mould with finial. Similar, smaller flanking doorways in porch additions.

Very rare, unaltered Gothic interior with galleries on four sides carried on elongated Corinthian columns of cast-iron. Gallery parapet with arcaded panels and moulded rail. Octagonal stone pulpit in front of communion recess with arcaded panels and entered by elegant wooden geometrical staircase with wrought iron railings. Communion table in three-bay recess arcaded - Communion rail and painted tables of the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Commandments. Organ at west end over gallery with carved wooden case. Flat ceiling with moulded ribs, foliated corbels and ceiling roses. Stone font originally sited alongside pulpit, now moved to side aisle. Portable font basin with cover, carried on octagonal column.

Listed in Grade II* as a rare and good example of an early C19 Methodist Church interior.

Listing NGR: SU4702667501