Unity Church

TORQUAY

SX9163 MONTPELLIER ROAD 885-1/18/190 (North side) Unity Church

GV II

Unitarian church. 1912 to the designs of Bridgman and Bridgman. Snecked local grey limestone with freestone dressings; slate roofs. PLAN: Built in two sections with an entrance to the southern section below a tower with belfry. Passageway entrance with chapel to right (south). Northern section entered from an adjacent entrance. Free Gothic style. EXTERIOR: Single storey with 2-stage tower. 3:4:1-window front. Southern block (to the right) buttressed with segmental-headed 3-light windows with trefoil-headed lights. Segmental-headed doorway to lower stage of tower with recessed 2-leaf boarded door with ornamental strap hinges. Doorway flanked by buttresses which extend up the tower and terminate in freestone pinnacles. Tower has an openwork parapet; central pilaster strip and 2 segmental-headed louvred belfry openings. The left-hand block is similar to the right-hand block with similar buttresses and 3-light windows with cusped lights and square heads. Gabled porch block to right with a coped gable with kneelers. Moulded doorway with Tudor-arched head and a 2-leaf boarded door with strap hinges below a fanlight. INTERIOR: 4 collar rafter roof trusses. N end has preacher's gallery fronted with shafts in an Early English style. Described in Pevsner as a "diminutive limestone cathedral for liberal Christianity" (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989: P.852).

Listing NGR: SX9199063600