Mumbles Methodist Church

Mumbles Methodist Church

A large chapel that blends Romanesque and French Gothic architectural elements, built in snecked, rock-faced stone with pale limestone dressings. The building is Grade II listed.

The symmetrical front elevation is three bays wide, with the outer bays formed as three-stage stair towers that project forward. The central bay is wider and is topped by a steep gablet. Beneath it sits the main doorway, which is set under a moulded round-headed arch with four orders of shafts and stiff-leaf capitals. Below this main arch are two round-headed doorways positioned beneath a tympanum carved with foliage relief and a shield bearing the building's date. These doorways are separated by a trumeau (a central pier) with a stiff-leaf capital. The doors themselves are panelled with heavy ribs; some panels have been replaced with glass. Above the gablet is a large three-light window featuring circular tracery lights, with a sill band cut through by the gablet and a hood mould that continues as an impost band. Both bands continue as string courses up the towers. Beneath the apex are three stepped round-headed lights, now bricked up, with a sill band.

The towers have doorways in their lower stage with tall round heads, single-order shafts, and stiff-leaf capitals. The arches frame blank tympana and are surmounted by ribbed and panelled doors beneath shouldered lintels. Above the lower string course, each tower contains two narrow round-headed lights, then another string course and a moulded offset marking the transition to the narrower upper stage. The upper stage has three square-headed windows and a moulded coping.

On the right side wall, the stair tower has three round-headed lights with a raked sill line that respects the slope of the internal stair. Above the lower string course are two round-headed windows; the upper stage has three windows similar to those on the front. Further right, the main interior wall is lit by three round-headed two-light windows with circular tracery lights and broad transoms. Beyond this is a shallow-projecting cross-gabled bay with a higher eaves line and a similar but larger three-light window. Above this window is a small blind trefoil opening. To the right of this bay is a two-storey vestry and schoolroom with plainer detailing: a round-headed doorway on the left with double boarded doors and a trefoiled circular window above, and further right two round-headed windows in each storey.

The angle at the rear is rounded, and the rear elevation is pebble-dashed. It has two round-headed windows in each storey (replaced in their original openings), stepped blind windows below the apex similar to those on the front, and a low lean-to on the right side. The left side wall is similar to the right side.

Interior

The roof is plastered above the collar beams, and the principals have corbelled brackets. The ceiling features round traceried panels. A raked gallery stands above the entrance, carried on two twisted cast iron columns with Corinthian capitals. Its front displays blind cusped segmental-arched panels to the centre and splays out to the sides with plainer boarding. A glass screen is positioned beneath the gallery to create a larger vestibule at the entrance. The furnishings include plain pine pews. The communion rail has a moulded hand rest and twisted cast iron balusters with raking struts. The rounded pulpit front features similar twisted balusters and a moulded hand rail, with panels of cusped segmental arches. Railings continue to left and right, with steps on the left side having square moulded newels and similar balusters. Behind the pulpit is an arched reredos with paired shafts displaying shaft rings and stylised waterleaf capitals, a roll-moulded round arch beneath a gablet with a cusped triangular panel. Foliage finials crown the right, left, and apex of the gablet.

A brass plaque on the north wall commemorates those lost in the First and Second World Wars.