Description

CHESTER CITY (EM)

SJ4066 ST JOHN STREET
1932-1/6/248 (West side)
Wesleyan Methodist Church

II

Church. 1811. By Thomas Harrison and William Cole II of
Chester. Extended, externally drastically, 1906 by PH and WT
Lockwood. Earlier part built of brown brick, the later part in
Ruabon red brick; grey slate roofs.
PLAN/EXTERIOR: the face to St John Street, 1906, is
symmetrical in indeterminate style with projecting 2-storey
corner pavilions, formerly with entrances, now display
windows, in front of the gabled main front with large 9-light
round-arched window with quasi-panel tracery. A plaque above
the window is inscribed erected 1811 : restored 1906. Stepped
and rounded gable with cartouche and finial. The right side of
the original chapel has 3 tall leaded windows with cambered
gauged-brick heads to the aisle and 3 semicircular windows
with radial-bar glazing to the gallery. The left side is
similar, but with lower part of front bay concealed by the
extension. The rear, now the liturgical east end, was
reordered in 1906; a rainwater pipe and head at corner of nave
is dated 1811 on a butterfly bracket.
INTERIOR: Ionic arcades and side galleries in the unaltered
parts and a round classical arch to the chancel.
HISTORICAL NOTE: originally the chapel was correctly oriented,
entered from the west, facing the City Walls, and with an
apsidal east end to St John Street. Thomas Harrison prepared
only a plan, fee 20 pounds. This was an insufficient basis for
builders' estimates. William Cole II, whose son was to be
Harrison's pupil, completed the working drawings and prepared
specifications, fee 85 pounds. Cole evidently also acted as a
contractor for masonry, carpentry and joinery, approximately
half the cost of the building. The 1906 extensions and
alterations included reorienting the church. The apse was
demolished, the new entrance front to St John Street built and
the chancel added, or reordered from the previous porch, to
replace the original entrance.
The later C20 wing left of the St John Street front is not
included in this item.
(Simpson F: Notes on Chester Churches and Chapels: 1920-1930).

Listing NGR: SJ4075966231

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wesley Methodist Church, Chester at Wikipedia
• Wesley Methodist Church, Chester official website
• Wikidata Q15979601

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.

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