22, The Mint

No. 22, The Mint is a Roman Catholic chapel dating to the 1830s, with subsequent use as a school and disused at the time of survey. The architect remains unknown. The building is constructed of Heavitree and volcanic random rubble with red brick and freestone dressings, and has a corrugated asbestos roof. It is designed in the Romanesque Revival style, with a Greek Doric gallery frontal.

The building is situated with its west end facing into a courtyard off The Mint. The layout is a T-shaped plan, with evidence of west and east end galleries. The main body of the building contains two rooms. The east end is wider, with porch blocks in the angles with the rest of the structure. The west end features coped pilasters rising to gallery level and a shallow coped gable with kneelers; a stringcourse runs at the sill level of the gallery windows. A round-headed doorway is centrally positioned, featuring engaged piers with Romanesque style capitals, a hoodmould and two orders of chevron carving. It has a two-leaf plank door with scrolled hinges, flanked by round-headed windows. Three upper windows are also round-headed, featuring engaged piers with capitals and moulded architraves to the arches. A stone wheel window with lattice is set in the gable. Four tall windows are present on each of the long sides; the westernmost windows are round-headed, and the others are square-headed. The rear elevation features tall, high-transomed windows with 8 over 16-pane sashes. A north-facing rear porch has a segmental-headed doorway and a round-headed, chamfered blocked window above, with a small brick window located alongside the door.

The interior west end gallery includes a stick balustrade staircase and a Greek Doric colonnade with fluted columns, partly obscured by a boarded partition. The west end room, retaining the colonnade, also retains a cornice that is likely original. It is separated from the east room by a panelled partition. The eastern room also features a deep cornice and a coved ceiling with a giant bead moulding. The wider east end has been partially stripped of plaster and reveals a stick balustrade stair with turned newel posts to a small section of upper flooring.

Historically, this is an early example of Romanesque Revival architecture associated with an early 19th-century Roman Catholic chapel. The courtyard where the chapel is situated is considered archaeologically sensitive due to its proximity to the remains of St Nicholas' Priory.