Methodist Church Of St George And Attached Railings

The Methodist Church of St George, built in 1881 at the instigation of Joe Cockin, is constructed of squared snecked grey walling with yellow stone dressings, with the back gable and east wall rendered, and has a Cornish slate roof. It is a Gothic Revival building with Free style influences, incorporating a lofty main hall and an undercroft utilising the natural slope of the site. The front features lateral porticos, their roofs rising above the main hall’s eaves, and flanking turrets. The front gable is three storeys high. The lowest level has flat buttresses defining a pattern of plate-tracery transomed lancets in pointed outer and segmental central arches, set beneath a row of deep-set two-light lancets, all under a lintel with stone consoles. A central four-light window contains Geometrical tracery and is flanked by single lancets; a drip course extends horizontally from the springing of the main arch to the turrets. Three small, louvred lancets are located in the gable peak. The left and right sides have buttresses that extend as flat-capped turrets above modelled gablets. To each side, a set-back portico has glazed doors pointed with dog-tooth detailing, and below a row of five lancets. Each portico’s outer return gable has a simple rose window above a triple lancet. To the right of the right portico is a lower gabled unit, set back, with three openings with shouldered heads, beneath a small triple lancet. Granite steps lead to the porticos; steps also provide access from street level to the basement. The left side wall has four two-light plate-tracery windows above three two-light windows with glazing bars; the outer end has a rendered gable with two two-light openings at two levels, below a blind three-light window with oculi in a pointed arch, and a gable vent. A rendered flank to the south-east mirrors the opposite side, but the windows are blocked. An adjacent gabled building is not of special interest. A low wall runs across the front, with square piers, those at the gates to the steps having cross-saddle cappings. Good decorative cast-iron gates and railings, in a series of square panels containing embellished quatrefoils, are also present. Although the interior was not inspected, it is understood to retain its original furnishings. The building is one of the few remaining Methodist chapels in Truro and complements the Anglican Church of St George on the opposite side of the road.