Capel Bethel including railings to forecourt

Capel Bethel is a symmetrical Classical-style chapel with railings to its forecourt.

The building features a snecked rock-faced rubble front with ashlar dressings, complemented by uncoursed rubblestone with buttered pointing to the right return and rear, and pebbledash to the left return. The slate roof has a red ceramic ridge, an ashlar-coped pediment and parapet to the front.

The front elevation is arranged in a 1:3:1 bay pattern. The central section is dominated by three tall narrow 12-paned sashes with margin lights, grouped together in a central round-arched recess that breaks the eaves cornice. Above these windows is a small steep pediment that echoes the larger pediment above. The outer bays contain 8-paned sashes with margin lights. The ground floor has twin entrances with recessed large 6-panel double doors in ashlar surrounds with pedimented entablatures, flanking a small 4-paned sash with margin lights. The entrances themselves are flanked by 4-paned sashes with margin lights positioned directly below the first-floor outer windows.

The 4-bay returns feature two tiers of 8-paned sashes with margin lights. The upper windows are segmental-headed and the lower windows are flat-headed. Straight joints visible on the right return indicate former tall windows. On the left return, the upper-level window openings in the third and fourth bays are narrower than the remainder and contain margin lights sashes without further glazing bars. A half-glazed door in the fourth bay on the left return has a slate-hung lean-to between it and the third bay.

The rear elevation has two segmental-headed sashes with margin lights to the upper level and two 4-paned sashes with margin lights below, with visible straight joints between the tiers indicating former tall windows. A 4-paned casement with margin lights sits at the apex of the gable.

The small purple brick-paved forecourt to the entrance front features a rubblestone dwarf wall with slate coping and decorative fleur-de-lys railings. Two pairs of iron gates with pyramidal-capped standards complete the forecourt boundary.

The interior remains largely unaltered since its 1901 remodelling. A flat panelled ceiling with moulded ribs and hanging light fittings spans the chapel, with a cornice to the long walls interrupted by windows. Plastered walls are lined to resemble ashlar. A gallery extends to three sides, featuring a panelled front and dentilled cornice, supported on nine painted cast-iron columns with Corinthian capitals. The gallery has a built-in clock by Roberts & Owen of Caernarvon facing the set fawr, and the usual arrangement of numbered raked seating.

Gently raked pitch-pine seating occupies the ground floor, including curved pews facing the set fawr. The set fawr is flanked by chamfered 4-panel doors and has a Jacobean-style railed enclosure with a stumpy balustrade and ball finials below a panelled pulpit. Curved stairs with twisted balusters flank either side of the pulpit. Behind the set fawr is a decorative round-arched recess with twin Doric pilasters and columns, above which is a dentilled pediment with floral motifs to the spandrels.

At the entrance end, a screen contains three stained glass panels—one at the centre and one beyond each of the 6-panel doors leading to the entrance lobby. Each panel features a central roundel of birds. The upper four panels of each door also display Art Nouveau floral motif stained glass.

In the entrance lobby, pedimented painted slate tablets over the chapel doors provide the names of ministers from 1815 to 1962 (right) and the history of the congregation (left). Straight-flight staircases at each end with a turn on the half landing provide access to the gallery. The half landing has a turned balustrade across the front windows.