Former Congregational Church (Now Mosque)

Former Congregational Church (now Mosque), Union Crescent, Margate

Built in 1860 by the Reading architects Poulton and Woodman, this is a Congregational church now in use as a mosque. The building has undergone significant internal alterations in the late twentieth century, particularly to its interior.

The exterior is constructed of randomly coursed Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings and slate roofs. Designed in Early English Gothic style and set on a sloping site, the church comprises a five-bay aisleless nave with a small apse to the west, a balcony (now hidden behind modern panelling) at the east end, a south-east tower containing the main entrance, a north-west porch, a south-west vestry, an external arched entrance from Union Crescent, and a basement.

The south-east corner features a slightly projecting buttressed tower topped by a tall polygonal spire with lancet windows, which projects through the pitched aisle roof and dominates the composition. At the west end is a small polygonal apse, adjoined to the south by a low gabled vestry. A pointed-arched gateway to the west of the vestry provides a passageway between the church and the adjoining property, now roofed over with a modern flat roof.

The north and south elevations are symmetrical except for the south-east tower, which is balanced on the south elevation by a set-back two-storey gabled porch. Each elevation features five tall double lancet windows with traceried heads and polychrome brick voussoirs. The central windows on each elevation project slightly forward and are topped by large gabled dormers, each containing a square-headed four-light traceried window with a trefoil over each light and a blind roundel in the gable. Beneath the central window on the south dormer is a quatrefoil bearing the date 1860 in Roman numerals. The walling is divided by horizontal stone bands and coped buttresses. The east end displays a large arched four-light traceried window with hood mould and a small quatrefoil above. Below this window, behind ornate iron railings atop a low boundary wall, are three windows in triple-arch formation. Due to the sloping site, the south elevation is raised on a yellow brick plinth containing the basement.

Internally, a modern suspended ceiling has been introduced into the nave, cutting across the dormer windows. The wooden open-trussed roof presumably survives above, with the lower parts of the trusses visible below the ceiling, supported on plain stepped corbels. The walls have been lined with modern pine matchboard panelling, continued to ceiling height at the eastern end of the nave where a gallery is likely to survive behind the screen. The western end of the nave also features matchboard panelling cutting across the top of the apse, which has an inserted suspended ceiling and glazed wooden screen. The stone ribs of the apse rise from elaborate floral corbels and are presumed to survive above the inserted ceiling. All windows retain plain leaded glass. Few original fittings survive other than some doors.

Historical Context

Margate was one of the first English seaside resorts and flourished during the nineteenth century as a destination favoured by middle-class Londoners, particularly following the establishment of a regular steamer service from London in 1815 and the opening of Margate Sands railway station in 1846. The Kent Congregational Association visited Margate in 1843–44 and identified a need for a Congregationalist church but deferred building plans to avoid friction with other denominations. In 1845, members of the Zion Chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection on Victoria Road left to form a Congregational church, initially established in a house on Cecil Street. The congregation later fitted up the former Bettison's Library on the same street as a chapel, but by the late 1850s this proved too small. A drawing of the proposed new church was published in The Builder in December 1858. Building commenced on 23 January 1860 and was completed on 7 September that year at a cost of £3,400.

The church was originally designed without a gallery, but one was added to accommodate increased attendance during the summer season. A Sunday school, originally planned beneath the church, was not included when the local council required the church floor to be raised, a cost deemed prohibitive. A Sunday school building (now a Union church) was eventually constructed on the east side of Pump Lane in 1872, probably also designed by Poulton and Woodman.

After closure, the church was converted to a gymnastic club with interior alterations. In 2003 it was converted for use as a mosque.

William Ford Poulton (1822–1900) and William Henry Woodman (1822–1879) were prolific Mid-Victorian architects specialising in Nonconformist churches. They also designed the Grade II* listed Wokingham Town Hall.