Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 17/08/2015

TQ3104SW
577-1/40/571

BRIGHTON,
NEW ROAD (West side),
Brighton Unitarian Church

(Formerly listed as Christ Church, NEW ROAD)

13/10/52

II

Unitarian chapel. 1820, altered in 1936 and refurbished in
1966. Designed by Amon Henry Wilds for John Chatfield. Brick
faced with stucco on the main elevation; brick of mixed bonds
on the returns which have a 4-window range to rectangular
meeting hall with a west gallery. The shallow-pitched,
gable-facing roof is of slate, renewed after the 1987 storm.
To the rear is a large church room and kitchens from the early
to mid C20, both of which are specifically excluded from this
listing. Greek Revival style.
EXTERIOR: the main elevation treated as a Greek temple front:
a 3-step stylobate with short returns serves as a base for a
tetrastyle portico of fluted Doric columns supporting a broad
entablature; all soffits are plain. The front wall is bare
with responds to the end columns only; between each column and
front wall a thick lintel. The centre bay of the portico is
wider than the sides forming a gap for the flat-arched
entrance. The latter has a battered, eared architrave;
Egyptian-Revival-style coved cornice over the entrance. The
round-arched windows on the returns have projecting sills and
are set back in deep reveals. Each window has 3 lights, the
centre terminating in a roundel. At the top of the returns a
brick entablature area.
INTERIOR: the main church hall is roughly square in plan, with
a broad coved cornice to a flat ceiling. In the ritual east
wall are 2 flat-arched entrances with pediments. There is a
ritual west gallery with simply parapeted front. Built for
extra seating, this gallery is now used as a loft for the
organ which dates to the late C19, when a wood dado was
installed along the foot of the walls as well as wood benches,
which have all been removed except for a set placed lengthwise
along the side walls. There are 3 stained glass windows of
interest: one pair, facing each other, in the second bay from
the ritual east end. These are dated to 1888, and one
commemorates a member of the Nye Chart family, which owned the
Theatre Royal, New Road (qv) in the late C19 and early C20. In
the easternmost window on the ritual north side is a WWI
memorial window.
(Carder T: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton: Lewes: 1990-: 107; A
Guide to the Buildings of Brighton: Macclesfield: 1986-: 32,
1F).

Listing NGR: TQ3113404360

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Brighton Unitarian Church at Wikipedia
• Brighton Unitarian Church official website
• Wikidata Q4967738

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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