Lowertown Institute And Pavement With Gateway At The Front

The building is a former nonconformist chapel, including a surrounding pavement and gateway, constructed in two phases and later converted into a village institute. It dates from around the mid-19th century and the late 19th century.

The original section, probably the chapel, is built of painted rubble with dressed granite quoins, jambstones and lintels, and features brick arches. It has a slurried scantle slate roof, half-hipped on the right, with a brick chimney at the right-hand end. The later section, to the left, is of killas rubble with regular dressed granite quoins, sills, jambstones and lintels, and a slurried scantle slate roof with gable ends. Cast-iron ogee gutters are present on both sections.

The building consists of two rectangular rooms. The original right-hand room, dating from the mid-19th century, is adjoined by a taller, deeper room built in the late 19th century, which projects further at the front. The left-hand room contains galleried seating sloping from floor level on the left, and a stage on the right with an organ bay created by incorporating part of the original chapel.

The front elevation is single-storied and has four windows overall, arranged in two symmetrical two-window fronts, each with a central doorway. The left-hand front is built slightly forward of the original right-hand front. The original front has tall, 18-pane hornless sash windows, with a 9-pane fixed overlight above the doorway, designed to resemble the upper sashes. A ledged door is present, and the openings are spanned by shallow brick arches. Two 12-pane sashes are situated towards the rear on the right. The later front on the left has segmental granite monolithic arches over the openings, a ledged door, and tall 8-pane horned sash windows. A pair of round-headed windows with marginal panes feature within a large round-headed opening towards the middle of the left-hand end.

The interior of the left-hand room retains its original plaster ceiling with a moulded cornice, an ornate central rose, and four smaller roses. Original pitch-pine seating is also present. A rostrum with a pulpit likely stood on the right-hand side (ritual east) and has been replaced by a simple stage.

A raised wall at the front, constructed of square-on-plan granite monolithic posts with granite copings, supports cast-iron gates with fleur-de-lys finials.