Former Wesleyan Reform Chapel and Sunday School, Tynemouth, North Tyneside

Summary

Former Wesleyan Reform Methodist chapel by John Green Junior, 1856-1857, and Sunday School, 1857-1858, with C20 and C21 alterations, later part of the Borough Treasurer's Department Offices, now converted to a theatre.

Description

MATERIALS: sandstone ashlar, rubble stone, red brick, Welsh slate roof, wooden sash windows.

PLAN: the chapel is rectangular on plan and aligned south-west to north-east. Attached to the rear is a narrow link block and a full width, rectangular red brick Sunday School block.

EXTERIOR: the stone and red brick chapel is of two storeys with a pitched roof and stone coped gable ends. The narrow, flat-roofed link block is of one storey, with an external emergency exit (and stair) above, and the red brick Sunday School is of two storeys with a pitched roof.

The gabled front (south-west) elevation of the chapel is symmetrical with two storeys and three bays. It is built in dressed stone with three full-height recessed chamfered arched panels beneath a gabled string band and corniced coped gable, with blocks at its feet and a banded ashlar chimney at the apex. On the ground floor the central recessed panel contains a square-headed tripartite sash with bracketed sill and raised keyed surround. The narrower recessed panels to each side contain similar double-arched doorways with keystones, moulded imposts and double doors beneath stained glass toplights and fanlights. The fanlight contains the Old Tynemouth Borough coat of arms, flanked by the pitman and seaman bearers, with the latin motto 'messis ab altis' and its inception date '1849' below. The toplight has 'Borough Treasurers Office' painted across the central stained glass panel. The first-floor level of the recessed panels has round-arched windows flanking a central round-arched tripartite window. All the upper windows have bracketed sills and raised keyed surrounds with margin glazed and horned sash windows.

The left return (north-west) has a six-bay chapel elevation, link block and gable wall of the Sunday School to the left. The chapel adjoins number 85 Howard Street, which obscures the two right-hand bays. The right five bays, forming the original chapel of 1856-1857, are built in rubble stone with quoins. Three windows are visible to each floor. The square-headed ground-floor windows have stone sills and eight-over-eight horned sashes. The round-headed upper windows have voussoirs and margin-glazed horned sashes. To the left the chapel is extended in red brick in common bond, with one upper window (former door) and two mid-storey windows, all now infilled with brick. The full elevation has been raised by two or three red brick courses across both building phases. Abutting the chapel is the single-storey, single-bay link block (stage door exit - 2022) and the rendered gable wall of the Sunday School with a left-hand, early-C20 panelled door with a decorated mid rail.

The right (south-east) chapel return is similar, being built in rubble stone with red brick to the right-hand corner. The lower ground floor is concealed behind an L-shaped extension of the neighbouring building but contains a number of blocked ground floor windows set at varying heights. There are four upper round-headed windows (one blocked, but retaining its sash internally), the left three with stone voussoirs and the right with a double rowlock brick arch. The single-storey single-bay link block is concealed behind the adjacent extension and the gable wall of the Sunday School faces into a covered passageway. There is a matching early-C20 door to the left return.

The rear elevation of the chapel is built of red brick and is of four bays, the ground floor obscured by the link block. The upper floor has two inner square-headed windows flanked by round-headed outer windows (all infilled with red brick). The brick Sunday School has a single-storey, five-bay elevation facing Norfolk Street with a cement plinth and five tall round-arched windows with stone keystones and sills with six-over-four horned arched sashes and a moulded stone eaves band. To the left (south-east) is a covered single-storey external passageway with an ealy-C20 door matching the left return.

INTERIOR: the former chapel and Sunday School are in use as a theatre auditorium, scene dock and dressing rooms with the main public reception, foyer, bar and amenities in the adjacent building to the south.

The former entrance vestibule is accessed from the two main entrance doors facing onto Howard Street (now theatre exit doors - 2022). Corresponding early-C20 vestibule doors, with moulded architraves and six-panel doors, open into the chapel (now the auditorium) and a C21 metal staircase provides access up to the theatre control room and two end doors to the early-C21 L-shaped balcony. The auditorium retains a mid-C19 central decorated ventilation grill, with moulded and foliated raised roundel. Late-C19 wooden bracketed and moulded cornices are attached to the return walls to form sills to the upper windows. Two C21 public auditorium doors on the ground floor and one balcony door on the first floor are punched through the right return (south-east) wall to the foyer in the adjacent building. Three further staff and performers' doors are situated to the rear, behind the stage, and enter the stage door corridor (link block) with an exit to Norfolk Street Car Park. A first-floor balcony door exits onto the emergency roof exit and stair. The stage door corridor (link block) contains a stair and doorways into the Sunday School which now has an inserted floor with scene dock, dressing rooms (and access to the covered passageway) on the ground floor and a plant room on the first floor.

History

In 1796 John Wright (1730-1806), lawyer and property developer, purchased 50 acres of land between Norfolk Street and Newcastle Street from Frederick Howard, fifth Earl of Carlisle, for the development of the New Town of North Shields. He developed several elegant streets and it is suggested Northumberland Place, Northumberland Square and Howard Street were originally part of a high-status street scheme which Wright, and his sons devised and implemented before selling freehold buildings plots to individuals. A substantial mansion, Wakefield House, was built by George Wakefield (around 1764-1806, banker) as the northern vista to the intended grand principal way from Howard Street to Northumberland Square. However, due to financial difficulties and the death of George Wakefield it was demolished in the 1800s. Northumberland Place and the southern end of Howard Street, below Saville Street, were developed first with housing and public buildings, with the earliest documentary evidence for Northumberland Place an 1800 release for premises. Between 1810 and 1816 Northumberland Square began development as a residential garden square with houses built on the site of Wakefield House, re-using its materials and stylistically matching those already built on Northumberland Place. Further housing, public buildings and churches were built on Howard Street and Northumberland Square through the mid to late C19.

The former Wesleyan Reform Chapel, of 1856, was designed by John Green Junior (1807-1868), who worked within the family architectural practice of John Green (1787-1852) and Benjamin Green (1811-1858). John Green Junior’s restrained design, which matched his uncle’s severe and economical style, was built in stone between May to September 1856 by James and Matthew Robson and opened for public worship on 19 February 1857. It is first shown on the 1:528 Town Plan of 1860 (surveyed 1857). The principal elevation faced Howard Street with two small adjoining vestry extensions within a rear yard accessed from Norfolk Street. The interior was embellished with an ornamental sun light of 46 gas jets and a radiant centre piece with an inner circle of 25 jets below an ornate ventilation roundel. The foundation stone for a Wesleyan Reform Sabbath School was laid directly east of the chapel in May 1857, with an entrance from Norfolk Street, and was opened within the year. The Wesleyan Reform Union was dissolved between 1857 and 1858 and its members amalgamated to form the United Methodist Free (UMF) Church. The chapel was extended in red brick and the roof raised, with the demolition of the vestries and an extension attached between the church and school which appears on the 1:500 1896 Town Plan (surveyed 1894-1895).

In 1907 the UMF church merged to form the United Methodist Church. Between 1913 and 1921 the church was closed and amalgamated into the Borough Council offices. By 1938 it had been acquired by the Borough Council and the church’s interior dismantled by the borough surveyors and stained glass inserted in the fanlights and toplights of the front entrances. It continued to serve as the Borough Treasurer's offices until North Tyneside Council was formed in 1974. The building was adapted in 2001 to use as a theatre with an entrance foyer and recreational space in the adjacent building.

Reasons for Listing

The former Wesleyan Reform Methodist chapel of 1856-1857 and Sunday School of 1857-1858, by John Green Junior, is listed at Grade II for the following principle reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good example of Wesleyan chapel and Sunday school designed in a restrained and dignified style by John Green Junior working in the well-regarded family architectural practice of John and Benjamin Green;
* for the retention of fixtures and fittings, including the stained-glass toplights over the paired doors containing the Old Tynemouth Borough coat of arms flanked by a pitman and a seaman bearer, which relate to its subsequent use as the Borough Treasurer’s office.

Historic interest:

* as one of three mid-C19 Nonconformist churches built on Howard Street as part of the development of the New Town of North Shields, reflecting the popularity of Nonconformism in the mid-C19;
* it was later amalgamated with the adjacent group of buildings designed in phases by John and Benjamin Green, John Dobson, and the Borough Surveyors, to form part of a fine civic complex, serving as the Borough Treasurer’s office until 1974.

External Links

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