Zion Free Church

This is an 1846-8 Wesleyan Chapel, later becoming the Zion Free Church, located set back in the centre of a mixed row of terraced buildings on Meyrick Street. It was likely designed by John Road, with alterations and extensions undertaken in 1857 by K W Ladd, 1866-7, 1882, 1911, and 1986. It is a large-scale classical chapel with a painted stucco two-storey facade and a slate roof. The front has five windows arranged as a 1-3-1 pattern; the central three bays project forward beneath a raised pediment dated 1848, while the wings feature plain parapets. The ground floor is high and features four plain piers, a band above, and four upper pilasters (originally with Ionic capitals), supporting a deep entablature with coved corners. The windows are arched, containing 30 panes with intersecting tracery heads. The central ground-floor section has three large arched doorways with triple folding panel doors and ironwork radiating tracery to the fanlights. A three-storey, five-window side elevation is also present.

Old photographs indicate that the ground floor was originally channelled with radiating voussoirs around the openings, and the upper centre windows had moulded architraves, with richer detailing to the main entablature and blocking course, which originally displayed ‘Wesley Chapel’ in raised lettering. Iron railings in a Grecian style were installed around a low coped stone wall, along with a forecourt, in 1857. Five sets of railings flank the doorways.

The interior is notable for its fine and unified design despite subsequent alterations. These included an extension with a west gallery and organ in 1867, the addition of a lobby and pews in 1882, when the organ was rebuilt, and unspecified works in 1911. The flat plaster ceiling features Greek coved corners and two large, bordered roses flanked by twelve smaller roses. A four-sided gallery is supported by seven rows of four painted Roman Doric columns on pedestals above pew level. A high, grained wood pulpit is raised on eight painted wood columns and accessed by curving timber staircases with turned balusters, echoed in a curved rail in front of the pulpit. The front of the pulpit features figured veneer panels, and the organ is housed in a grained wood case. Schoolrooms are located beneath the main floor, supported by iron columns.

The building is listed II* due to its exceptional interior, which is said to be the largest chapel in Dyfed.