Description

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 BARTON STREET 859-1/6/48 (South side) 27/07/73 No.54A Kingdom Hall, with classroom wing, and boundary railings with gates (Formerly Listed as: BARTON STREET (South side) Congregational Church)

GV II

Meeting hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, former Congregational chapel, with attached classroom wing, and with front boundary railings and gates. 1820, galleries added 1828, classroom wing 1836 and 1839 (VCH). Flemish (front) and English (return walls) bond brickwork, asbestos-cement slate roof. PLAN: a galleried chapel with portico, linked at the back by a lobby to a long 2-storey service wing, offset to the left. EXTERIOR: the former chapel has a 2-storey 3-bay front with 3 arched 25-pane sashes with radial heads above two 15-pane sashes flanking a projecting square porch with central pair of panelled C19 doors in an arched surround on 4 sandstone steps. The porch has a cornice below a stone blocking-course. The main wall, which has been rebuilt in the upper parts, has a rendered blocking-course above a single brick string, and a coped parapet, covering a low-pitched hipped roof. Both return walls are plain, but that to the right has been rendered, and there is a single sash near the back. The rear wall has a central sash with radial head, flanked by 2 blind arches in the upper part, and a 20-pane light, low left. INTERIOR has been altered, and the roof is concealed by a late C20 suspended ceiling at the level of the top of the former balcony fronts; the balcony seating is said to remain in-situ. The balconies, on 3 sides, are fronted by small fielded panels, and are carried on slender cast-iron columns. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: across the full width of the front of the hall at the pavement edge is a simple iron railing, with fine wrought-iron central gates with overthrow and side supporters; the railing returns to the front of the hall at the left, and to the front of No.55 (not included) to the right. The classroom wing is in brick with slate roof, with a lean-to in brick with tile roof on the W side, linked to the main building by a gabled 2-storey porch. In 7 bays, with 5 lights and 2 blank panels at first floor, and 5 bays below, similar, but with a door in bay 2. The outer face has a series of blocked openings to segmental heads and stone cills at first floor, above 3 arched 9-pane lights with radial heads; a 2-storey square block projects at the far end, and has a panelled door with overlight. The gable towards the street is cement rendered, and that at the outer end has a small blocked opening to the gable, above 2 large blocked segmental-headed openings with cills at first floor, and two C20 casements at the ground floor. INTERIOR of the wing not inspected. HISTORICAL NOTE: this wing built at a cost of »900 according to Bennett (The History of Tewkesbury, 1830); it may have served as a factory at some stage. (Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 164; Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-houses: Stell C: Gloucestershire: London: 1986-: 100).

Listing NGR: SO8950432694

External Links

• Wikidata Q26496934

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Recommended Books

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover