Bethlehem Eglwys Presbyteraidd Cymru/ Bethlehem Welsh Presbyterian Chapel

The Bethlehem Welsh Presbyterian Chapel, built in 1881, is a prominent building within the earlier Rhondda industrial housing development, dating from before the last quarter of the 19th century. Its design and fabric reflect this early period, and the width of the street was reputedly determined by the Bute estate to allow for carriages to turn. The chapel is constructed of Pennant sandstone, with some areas featuring symmetrical snecking, and ashlar dressings, some with decorative tooling. The stone on the front façade is a greyer tone compared to the browner stone at the rear, and the roof is covered with Welsh slate, terracotta ridge tiles, and a gable finial, with lead covering the pediment and parapet.

The main street frontage features a wide central bay with a pediment, incorporating billet moulding and an inscription panel reading ‘Bethlehem 1881 Methodistiaid Calfinaidd’ below a roundel with punched tracery. Wide, shallow side pilasters support a simple entablature, with the architrave also incorporating billet moulding. At gallery level are three round-headed windows with a moulded impost band and replaced glazing. Below, matching round-headed arches frame three doorways, which have kneeler-type capitals, moulded impost bands, splayed bases to surrounds, multipanelled double doors, simple semicircular overlights, and stone steps with a two-course plinth. Narrow bays flank the central section, battered for the lowest quarter of their height, with long, narrow, round-headed staircase windows. A low boundary wall extends in front, featuring four decoratively dressed piers with cross-gabled capstones, decorative iron railings, and gates with a leaf motif.

The chapel frontage is wider than the main building, which has five bays with multipane round-headed fixed glazed gallery windows. The ground floor features four-pane segmental-headed sash windows with horns. A two-bay rear wing extends to the right, with the end bay unusually built out across a rear lane.

Inside, a curved gallery is supported by nine fluted cast iron piers with foliage capitals. The gallery front is part-boarded with an upper band of painted decorative relief panels, and there is some stencilling to the walls. The ceiling was replaced in the 1950s. The ground floor is raked and features curved pews, a central decorative pulpit with arcading and flanking staircases, a curved set fawr, and a large organ installed in the 1930s. To the rear are meeting rooms, some with boarded dados and four-panelled doors.