Camborne Centenary Methodist Church With Forecourt Walls And Railings

CAMBORNE WESLEY STREET SW 64 SE (south side) 5/108 Camborne Centenary Methodist Church with forecourt walls and railings II Methodist church, formerly known as Camborne Centenary Methodist Chapel. Dated 1839 in pediment; altered, probably in late C19. Rendered, the front and right-hand side scored, probably on rubble; slate roof. Rectangular plan, gable to road, with porches flanking the facade. Two storeys and 5 bays; the original facade, which was a simple composition with 6 Doric giant pilasters, triglyph entablature, simple pediment containing the name and the date, square-headed windows at ground floor and round-headed windows above, and flanking single-storey porches with pedimented doors, was altered to give a central emphasis: the 3-bay centre breaks forward slightly, has a tetrastyle Roman Doric porch at ground floor protecting an inserted central doorway, raised lettering "CENTENARY WESLEYAN CHURCH" on the frieze, and a secondary segmental pediment in the original one, containing the date "1839" in a roundel flanked by foliated scrolls; the pilasters are now Corinthian, the ground floor has channelled rustication (with joggled voussoirs to the doorway and windows), the 1st floor windows have moulded architraves with keystones, and the side porches now have segmental pediments; all the windows now have round-headed lights and circular tracery. The 4-bay side walls have square- headed windows at ground floor (only 3 on the right) and round-headed above. (Attached Sunday School at rear not of special interest.) The forecourt walls and railings appear to be original: the sidewalls are rendered and have rounded coping, that on the left ramped, and the front is enclosed by cast-iron railings and gates with fleur-de-lys heads and dog- bars, mounted on a low granite ashlar plinth, with square piers which have swept pyramidal caps. Interior: horse-shoe gallery carried on a beam supported by cast-iron Tuscan columns with coupled brackets to the projected front, which is panelled and has a clock in the centre of the end (facing the pulpit); basket-arched apse filled at gallery level by large organ; former "City Road" arrangement of communion rail behind pulpit reversed by installation of rostrum with front altar surrounded by communion rail. References: J.C.C.Probert The Architecture of Cornish Methodism (1966), esp.p.8 and illustration facing p.13; Thomas Shaw A History of Cornish Methodism (1967).

Listing NGR: SW6518640163