Arley Chapel

BRISTOL

ST5974 ARLEY HILL, Cotham 901-1/36/1155 (North East side) 04/03/77 Arley Chapel

II

Congregational chapel, now Polish Roman Catholic church. 1855. By Foster and Wood. Coursed Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, slate roof and leaded dome. Apsidal cruciform plan. Italianate style. A segmentally-curved portico to the W front has Corinthian columns to an entablature with a dentil cornice; in between are semicircular arches with volute keys on square responds, and curved Pennant steps at the base. The pedimented W gable has clasping rusticated pilaster strips, a doorway beneath the portico with moulded architrave and panelled door flanked by narrow windows, and above the portico a dentil pediment over an oculus with 4 round lights; above the pediment is a square tower to a large, domed cupola, with chamfered corners and 3 narrow louvred arches to each face, the cornice raised over clock faces to each side, and a cyma dome with finial. The entablature of the portico extends on pilasters for one quadrant bay each side to the aisles, and the arch between the pilasters containing a shoulder-arch doorway below 2 semicircular-arched windows. Pedimented N transept gable has rusticated pilasters and a Doric Venetian window, the central arch of which breaks the cornice of the pediment, and with brackets below on a sill band which runs along the 6-bay N aisle beneath stilted semicircular-arched windows with plain architraves and moulded imposts; a narrow clerestory of linked round windows. S elevation as N. INTERIOR not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: 2-storey annex to the E end has 3-window range of semicircular-arched windows, a pronounced impost band and clasping pilasters. (Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural History: Bristol: 1979-: 384).

Listing NGR: ST5904074295