Bethesda Methodist Church

CHELTENHAM

SO9421SE GREAT NORWOOD STREET 630-1/23/351 (East side) 14/12/83 Bethesda Methodist Church

GV II

Methodist Church. 1845-6, (dated 1846) at a cost of »1,390, enlarged 1867. Pinkish-brown brick with ashlar front and slate roof. Plinth. Picturesque Early Gothic style. EXTERIOR: gabled front of 3 bays with stepped clasping buttress with pinnacles to ends, off-set pilaster buttresses. Coped verge with finial at apex. Windows with outer roll-moulding and inner chamfer and with hoodmoulds; tall lancet windows in shallow recesses to outer bays, triple lancets in shallow recess over central pointed doorway, plank doors in surround with 3 orders of pilaster and roll moulding to head. Returns have 4 windows in 2 levels, lower windows are shallow-arched, pointed to upper level, with stepped buttresses between. INTERIOR: retains original features including entrance lobby with 3 pointed-arched openings. Within a balcony to 3 sides on pilasters with solid balustrade with Gothic arcade (2 sides in process of removal at time of Review). To east end a pointed-arched shallow recess. HISTORICAL NOTE: in contrast to the surrounding development of neo-Classical terraces, this is a good example of the "incorrect Gothic" characteristic of many earlier C19 nonconformist chapels in this style. (Sampson A and Blake S: A Cheltenham Companion: Cheltenham: 1993-: 13,15; RCHME: Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses: Gloucestershire: London: 1986-: 77-8; Blake S: Cheltenham's Churches and Chapels AD 773-1883: Cheltenham: 1979-: 26).

Listing NGR: SO9452921366