United Reform Church And Hall With Attached Gates And Railings At Front

U 9490 BEACONSFIELD AYLESBURY END

411/12/10023 United Reform Church and hall with attached gates and railings at front

II

Bethesda chapel of two builds, original chapel now church hall, with attached gates and railings at front. 1800 and 1874-5; C20 alterations. 1800 chapel of red brick in Flemish bond with some glazed brick and gauged red brick arches; hipped Welsh slate roof. 1874-5 chapel of red brick with blue-brick bands and ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roof. 1874-5 chapel of 2 storeys, 3 x 5 bays, with lower 1-storey, 3-bay former chapel in line behind; iron gates and railings on dwarf brick wall with stone coping. 1874 chapel: in Italianate style. West elevation: chamfered plinth. Broad banded, corner pilasters carry pediment with stepped soffit and modillion cornice with ashlar coping and moulded obelisk with decorative metal finial. Polychromatic round arches to doors and windows which have stepped brick reveals and continuous hoodmoulds carried on ashlar columns in niches with decorative capitals and ashlar plinths; cinquefoil-decorated imposts and keystones; circular glazing bars to windows and fanlights. 3 steps up to triple doors which have late-C20 part-glazed double doors under fanlights, central columns on plinths dated 1874' and 1974'. 1st-floor offset below 5 linked windows. Right return: similar but plainer, having pilaster buttresses with stepped offsets and stepped dentilled eaves. Projecting lower bay at right end has lean-to with door and window providing link to former chapel. Former chapel has 3 round-arched windows with margin glazing bars and radial glazing bars to fanlights; left window broken into by C20 entrance and porch. Early-C20 single-storey gabled addition at right end. Left return: single-storey 1874-5 addition to 1800 chapel has original door with flanking windows and gable stack. Interior: 1874-5 chapel has horseshoe gallery on fluted columns with anthemion-decorated rail; original pews and cinquefoil-decorated dados; altar podium with panelled rail and wooden lectern with dwarf columns supporting deep cornice. Attached to front of 1874-5 chapel, on either side, are double gates and railings which have herring-bone and fleur-de-lis style decoration. A good-quality 1870s Nonconformist chapel with contemporary interior features and the. original chapel of 1800 attached to it. Source: RCHM, Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses in Central England (1986), p.6.

Listing NGR: SU9445890210