The Chapel Including Wall And Balustrades

The Chapel, including wall and balustrades, is a summer house located in the former private garden of the Gyllyngdune estate in Falmouth. It was built around the 1840s for the Reverend William Coope, who served as the rector of Falmouth from 1838 to 1870. The structure is made of rubble with red brick dressings and features a gabled roof covered in fish-scale scantle slate. The roof has exposed purlins and is adorned with shaped and pierced quatrefoil and dagger barge boards, complete with turned finials and pendants.

This small cruciform building has a near rectangular plan and is surrounded by a balustraded walkway that serves as a bridge over a waterfront path designed in the style of a rustic cave. It is connected to steps and walls that provide access to the beach via a tunnel. The Chapel is designed in the Gothic Revival style, featuring a central pointed-arched doorway with a hood-mould, a pair of planked doors, and an iron gate with a scrolled crest at the landward end. There are flat-headed windows on each side gable and at the seaward end, all with hood-moulds, though they were boarded up at the time of the survey. Crosses are positioned above the side windows.

Inside, the Chapel boasts a well-detailed waggon roof with a cross vault, moulded under-purlins, and lower arched bracing. The subsidiary features include red brick balustrades between piers with stepped pyramidal caps surrounding the building, as well as winder steps leading down to the path. The wall continues along the seaward side towards the beach, recessed parallel to the steps.

Historically, the Reverend William Coope was recognized as a significant figure in the spread of Tractarianism within the Anglican Church in Cornwall. The Chapel occupies a prominent position on the sea front.