Description

STOKE ON TRENT

SJ8847 ALBION STREET, Hanley
613-1/8/45 (South side)
19/04/72 Bethesda Methodist Chapel
(Formerly Listed as:
ALBION STREET, Hanley
Bethesda Methodist Church)

GV II*

Methodist chapel. 1819 with additions of 1859 and 1887. Brick
with stuccoed facade, and slate roof.
2-storeyed. Pedimented entrance front to Albion Street, with
rusticated lower storey and full-length portico with heavy
cornice carried on paired fluted Corinthian shafts.
Paired doorways to left and right behind, the inner doors
having entablatures carried on consoles, and the outer
doorways with tall architraves. Central window with
entablature carried on paired consoles. Palladian window over,
with Corinthian shafts beneath central pedimented gable. Outer
windows are sashes with margin lights.
Rear of chapel is Flemish bond brickwork with buff headers. 5
bays and shallow curved apse. Windows with margin lights and
stuccoed heads with expressed keystones (blocked to first
floor).
Central section of apsidal end expressed by raised section to
cornice, with panelled decoration.
INTERIOR: Previous description records a continuous raking
gallery with a plaster vaulted soffit, carried on cast-iron
columns. The balustrade is panelled, above a minimal Doric
entablature with widely-spaced paterae. On the street side,
the gallery is dominated by a large organ in a baroque case.
Beneath it, at ground floor level, is a fine octagonal pulpit
reached by two opposed flights of stairs, with cast-iron
balustrades and hardwood handrails. The pulpit stands within a
contemporary communion rail, of similar construction to the
stair balustrades, defining an oval snactuary. Both are by
Robert Scrivener, 1856. Half-glazed timber screens separate
the stairs on the street front from the body of the church.
With its pews and minor fittings largely intact, the interior
stands virtually as it was finished in 1859 save for a
replacement ceiling. The burial crypt below contains a
monument to Rev. William Driver, 1831.

Listing NGR: SJ8822847351

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Bethesda Methodist Chapel, Hanley at Wikipedia
• Bethesda Methodist Chapel, Hanley official website
• Wikidata Q4897989

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)