Former Chapel

This is a former chapel, built in 1819 as the Bethesda Methodist Chapel, and its adjoining minister’s house (No. 64). It was later used as a church hall, known as St. Martin's Hall, apparently with seating for 750 people.

The chapel is rectangular and built of rubble, with a shallow-pitched, renewed slate roof and a half-hipped gable facing the street. It has a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay façade with plain rubble pilasters on the sides and dividing the bays. The central entrance has a projecting keystone and modern part-glazed doors. Tall, arched windows flank the entrance, with fan glazing to the upper segments and plain late 19th-century glazing below. Smaller, arched windows are located on the upper floor, also with fan glazing. A plain slate string-course sits above, terminating the pilasters. The rear of the chapel has a half-hipped roof and further small-paned, flat-arched windows arranged on four levels: two outer, two inner, two outer, and a central window at the apex.

Inside, there is a simple gallery on the roadside, supported by plain cast-iron columns, accessible by a later 19th-century staircase with turned balusters and a newel. The interior joinery is pine. At the time of inspection in June 1995, all windows except those facing the road on the upper floor were externally boarded.

The adjoining minister’s house (No. 64) is set back and stepped down from the chapel. It is constructed of the same rubble as the chapel, and has a plain gable end chimney with a plain capping and weather coursing. It features a four-panel Victorian door with arched, glazed upper panels, and a single window to the right on two floors. The windows are plain 19th-century sashes, which have been restored.

The chapel is an unusual and restrained early 19th-century building, located in a prominent roadside position.