United Reformed Church Formerly Congregational Church

United Reformed Church, formerly Congregational Church

This is a Congregational church built in 1885 by Henry Ward, a locally based architect, designed in a classical Mannerist manner. It replaced an earlier smaller church of 1857 which had been enlarged in 1864.

The church is constructed of coursed ragstone with ashlar and probably terracotta dressings. It is set into the slope of the site, with its main elevation facing Cambridge Road at church level and a narrower elevation on Robertson Street at lower hall level.

The building comprises a church aligned east-west with the pulpit and organ at the western end. At lower level are a hall (now subdivided), a former Sunday school room, and a minister's room. A vestry at half level connects via narrow stairs to the pulpit. Monumental stairs lead from the Robertson Street entrance to the eastern end of the church, while rear stairs and stairs from Cambridge Road entrances provide access to the gallery.

The Cambridge Road elevation is the principal front, arranged in six bays. Five bays rise to two storeys with a full attic storey of pedimented dormers, while the wider, taller pedimented eastern bay dominates. Bays are articulated by loosely composed Composite pilasters. The outer bays have segmental pedimented entrances enriched with foliate carving, supported on triple pilasters with foliate capitals and a deep entablature. Above each entrance is a plain segmental-headed fanlight flanked by enriched foliate spandrels. Oak doors have two-over-five raised panels, some glazed in small rectangular leaded panes of green coloured glass. Ground floor windows are of three round-headed lights in eared architraves. Tall first floor windows in eared architraves have two lights, a plain transom, and enriched pediments. The eastern bay features a particularly rich round-headed tripartite window at first floor, with a hood mould, two central lights below a circular light, flanked by single lights below foliate panels. The elevation has a continuous frieze. The eastern bay rises to a tall pedimented attic storey with coursed ragstone pediment and stone or terracotta dressings enriched with foliate panels, set over a Lombardic frieze. The five adjacent bays have tall pedimented dormers supported by scrolled brackets, each with a blind oculus and an open balustrade between. Above the tripartite window and at the western end of the balustrade is a spiked sphere.

The Robertson Street elevation is a narrow east-facing front of four storeys in similar manner. The ground floor has two bays with a pair of enriched arched entrances, one to the brewery yard and one to the church, beneath a deep modillion cornice. Church doors are oak, partly glazed. The upper floors are treated as a single bay. The first and second floors feature a monumental three-light mullion and transom window rising through two storeys, flanked by paired Composite pilasters. The window has enriched mullions and transoms, a bolection moulded frieze, and an open segmental pediment framing a spiked sphere. The upper floor has a four-light round-headed tripartite window. Above a modillion cornice, the pediment is similar to that on Cambridge Road. A tall stack is set back to the left.

The interior of the church is notably intact and dramatic. It has a horseshoe-shaped gallery with a curved profile decorated in low relief foliate pattern, supported on cast iron shafts and pierced brackets. Low relief decoration is similarly applied to round-arched blind panels lining the upper church walls. The western end is defined by three large round-arched bays with moulded arches and prominent keystones. Single pedimented doorcases are offset within the outer bays of the west wall at both levels. The church roof is coved with central ribbed and moulded diagonally boarded panels. The gallery balcony soffit is also boarded. Set forward from the central bay of the west wall is a substantial raised pulpit with a projecting lectern, reached from gallery level and set above ministers' seating and the table below, all in pine. Behind it is the organ with painted pipes. Walls have a panelled dado with red flock panels. Seating is in curved pews with diagonally boarded backs.

The church is reached from Robertson Street by a monumental stone stair with robust rectangular carved stone newels, an open arcaded balustrade, and a polished moulded rail in darker grey stone. At the head of the stairs are a pair of doors with upper panels glazed in rectangular leaded panes of green glass and original brass door furniture. From Cambridge Road, sets of double doors, some similarly glazed, lead to entrance lobbies with glazed screens, from which stone stairs give access to the gallery. These stairs have ornate cast metal newels and balusters and moulded timber rails. A timber stair with similar balustrades rises from the basement to the gallery at the rear. The vestry has pine fittings including a dado with upper panels lined in red velvet, a fireplace and overmantel, fitted cupboards, and short flights of steps to the stairwell and to the pulpit.

The lower hall is supported on cast iron columns. It is now subdivided with suspended ceilings and is of reduced interest. The former Sunday school room has fitted cupboards. The lounge has a moulded ceiling and fireplace and may be the room illustrated as the Minister's room in Charles New's commemorative book.

Henry Ward (1854–1927), ARIBA, was articled to Wallen and Paxon before training in the atelier of M Genin in Paris. He was a prolific and versatile locally based architect with offices at 8 Bank Buildings, 64 Station Road, Hastings. He was in practice in Hastings from 1881, moving there for his health, and won the competition for Hastings Town Hall (listed Grade II), going on to build the Town Hall in Bexhill. His Observer Building, also on Cambridge Road in Hastings, was designed in 1914 but, interrupted by the First World War, was built in 1924. As well as this Congregational Church in Hastings, he designed village chapels associated with it and Congregational churches in Bexhill and Eastbourne (1903), the latter recently listed Grade II. He designed most of the shops in the south-east for the department store Messrs Plummer Roddis Ltd, including the premises in Robertson Street, Hastings, which were completed shortly before his death.