Claverton Down Gospel Hall

CLAVERTON DOWN GOSPEL HALL

A community hall built in 1896-97 to designs by architects Silcock and Reay. The building is constructed in limestone ashlar with a composition slate roof.

The hall is a small, three-bay single-cell building with an offset entrance porch to the right and a gabled side entrance serving a small vestry. It displays Arts and Crafts style with Art Nouveau detail.

The west front is the principal elevation, featuring a gabled design with battered sides functioning as buttresses that extend forward beyond the main body of the chapel. The gable has moulded coping and is distinguished by finely carved winged angels in profile set as kneelers above a four-light ovolo mould mullioned window. This window contains restrained tulip pattern stained glass leading. A straight dripmould runs above with a small carved head at its centre and diamond pattern stops.

The offset porch to the right has slightly stepped battered sides, a roll moulded cornice, and a sloped parapet with coping. Panels over the door feature ogee cusping, and the door frame itself has double ogee and roll moulding that breaks through the parapet. Two small two-light mullioned windows are set high on either side of the porch. The door has flower pattern leaded lights, good iron hinges, an original handle and back-plate, and a threshold formed from a single large shaped stone cut to the jambs. To the left of the door is a rounded ogee arched foot scraper, though the stonework is damaged. The door opens into a lobby with glazed tile flooring.

The sides of the building feature deep overhanging eaves immediately above closely spaced three-light leaded stone-mullioned windows positioned above small cast iron ventilating grilles (three on the left side and two on the right). Beyond these windows is a projecting porch with a two-light window below a half-timbered spandrel. A large lateral stack with battered upper stage stands at this end, flanked by bold moulded side cornices. This porch has a plank door with three glazed panels and original strap hinges, sheltered beneath a deep cantilevered gabled hood supported on bold curved wood brackets.

The east gable end is simpler than the west front, featuring a four-light stone mullioned window with stylised pattern leading beneath a small vertical recessed vent. No carved figures appear at this end. Lead rainwater pipes run down the elevations, and a thick slate damp proof course is visible around the entire perimeter.

Internally, the three-bay space is spanned by queen-post trusses with central ogee strutting, carried on large stone corbels and reinforced with inserted tie-rods below. The ceiling sits at collar level with all rafters exposed. Deep window embrasures have flat segmental heads with flush splayed sills containing small cast iron ventilating grilles; the central light also features an opening vent. Below sill level the walling is brown glazed brickwork in Flemish bond. The far end contains recesses on the right, one of which formerly held a small heating stove. A door with three steps down provides access to a very small vestry space, which also contains a fire recess. The floor throughout is parquet block, with glazed tile to the entrance lobby.

The building originally served as a community hall for the locality but fell from use during the 1950s. In the late 1990s it was converted to residential use. It represents an unusual example of Arts and Crafts architecture applied on a small scale.