Capel Tabernacle

Capel Tabernacle is a chapel dating from the 18th century, constructed of brown rock-faced stone with pale freestone dressings and slate roofs. It is an eclectic design incorporating elements of Classical and Northern Italian medieval styles. The slightly advanced, pedimented temple front has three bays defined by a giant order of four pairs of unfluted Corinthian columns. The wider central bay features an elliptical arch, while the outer bays have round arches, with medallions set within their spandrels. A heavily dentilled pediment, featuring a freestone band and a pierced roundel in the tympanum, is surmounted by a tabernacle as a pinnacle. The central arch of the front contains two two-light upper floor windows, with arcading below, while the round arch of the main entrance encloses two round-headed doorways and a round window at its head. The outer arches of the front each have a single round-arched window to the upper floor and a round-arched doorway with a surrounding arcade of windows. To the left of the temple front is a tall round-headed window on a projecting staircase tower. To the right, an engaged square tower rises to an octagonal steeple, with round-headed two-light windows to the upper stage, including clocks, and aedicules featuring Italianate two-light round-headed windows with louvres. The lowest stage of the stair tower has a tall round-headed window to the front and paired tall round-headed windows to the side, alongside an entrance doorway with a stone surround. This entrance doorway connects to a forecourt via a ramped stairway with a pierced balustrade and an archway leading to a storage/service area. A similar arrangement is present at the Northern staircase tower.

The side elevations are characterized by pierced parapets and four tall, shallow arches, each enclosing, at the upper floor level, two two-light round-headed windows with a pierced roundel above. At ground floor level, there are triple round-headed windows, and at basement level, segmental arches containing paired, segmentally-headed small-pane sash windows. The end bays to the East are narrower, featuring a single upper floor window below a shallow projection that overlaps with the adjacent bay and contains paired windows. An entrance doorway with stone steps and a pierced balustrade leads down to ground level. The rear of the building has two pairs of small windows in the gable. A central shallow projection has a monopitch roof and two two-light windows to each side at upper floor level, with round-headed windows to the ground floor.

The interior is magnificent, featuring a shallow elliptical ceiling with ribs on polygonal corbels and elaborate panelling. Intruding corners are present on the staircases at the front. A continuous gallery, with a balustrade supported on iron columns with crocketed capitals, has stencilled decoration to the coving and a boarded front surmounted by filigree work, sweeping down behind the pulpit. The organ console is located at the front of the choir benches, while the organ itself is situated at the rear, housed within a Gothic case, with further detached banks of organ pipes positioned in the chapel corners. Entrances to the staircases are located beside the organ. Stained glass is present in the windows to the sides of the organ. The pulpit is large and convex, with pierced arcading and balustraded stairs on each side, complemented by a convex balustrade to the set fawr enclosure. The pitch pine benches are arranged concentrically around the pulpit. To the rear of the pulpit are doors leading to service rooms. A basement schoolroom is also part of the building.