History in Structure

Argyle Congregational Chapel

A Grade II Listed Building in Bath, Bath and North East Somerset

We don't have any photos of this building yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?

Upload Photo »

Approximate Location Map
Large Map »

Coordinates

Latitude: 51.3837 / 51°23'1"N

Longitude: -2.3572 / 2°21'25"W

OS Eastings: 375237

OS Northings: 165023

OS Grid: ST752650

Mapcode National: GBR 0QH.4WD

Mapcode Global: VH96M.3H63

Plus Code: 9C3V9JMV+F4

Entry Name: Argyle Congregational Chapel

Listing Date: 12 June 1950

Last Amended: 15 October 2010

Grade: II

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1394150

English Heritage Legacy ID: 509546

ID on this website: 101394150

Location: Bath, Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset, BA2

County: Bath and North East Somerset

Parish: Non Civil Parish

Built-Up Area: Bath

Traditional County: Somerset

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Somerset

Tagged with: Chapel

Find accommodation in
Bath

Description


ARGYLE STREET
(North side)

Argyle Congregational Chapel
12/06/50

GV II

Formerly known as: Argyle Chapel ARGYLE STREET.

Congregational chapel. 1788-9 by Thomas Baldwin, enlarged 1821 by H.E. Goodridge, further altered 1861.
MATERIALS: Bath limestone ashlar to front, coursed rubble to rear, Welsh slate roof.
PLAN: Rectangular plan with various accretions.
EXTERIOR: Three bay front, slightly recessed between Nos.6 and 7 Argyle Street (qv). The front is one:one:one bays with the centre set slightly forward. The ground floor is by Goodridge and dates from 1823. Doorways in plain walling on either side of unfluted Ionic portico in antis, two columns with flanking Doric pilasters. ten-panel doors with the panels recessed, in pylon architraves and with cornice heads on consoles. The portico contains a central tall double door (originally window) in architrave surround, the return walls have doors as front. Plain entablature. First floor is lower and dates from 1862 by Hickes and Isaac. Arched windows with architrave heads and a continuous impost band flank an attached Corinthian order, the outer ones square, the inner ones circular. Cornice with modillions above dentils, partly balustraded parapet over. Side (west) elevation has arched windows over segmental headed ones, lunette in north gable. Various C20 additions.
INTERIOR: Not inspected, but Royal Commission for Historic Monuments (RCHM) reports `The interior (18m X 28m X 13.5m) partly refitted in late C19, has a gallery around three sides supported by cast iron columns. Beneath the chapel is a stone vaulted cellar with a late C18 wrought iron gate at the north entrance; it was originally intended to be let for storage.
FITTINGS: Include a monument to Rev. William Jay 1863, pastor for 62 years; also an early C19 pulpit which has been altered and lowered but retains an arched front flanked by paired Ionic columns supporting a dentil cornice.
HISTORY: This Congregational chapel was founded after a dispute with the Countess of Huntingdon led to a breakaway chapel being established in 1782. A new chapel was commissioned from Baldwin, and opened on 4 October 1789. The Rev. William Jay became minister in 1791 and remained here for 62 years (see bronze plaque). His congregation having greatly expanded, the chapel was first extended by the young Henry Goodridge (one of his earliest commissions), who added a new Greek Revival front (influenced by Wilkins¿ Freemasons¿ Hall in York Street) and extended the interior; very little of the C18 fabric seems to survive. The jubilee celebrations of 1839 led to two granite memorial columns being introduced within. Hickes and Isaac¿s alterations of 1862 heightened the front and considerably compromised the Grecian severity of Goodridge¿s composition, which formerly terminated with an attic storey with pediment above. The original elevation was further embellished with fine iron railings and an overthrow. T.B Silcock carried out further repairs and reroofed the chapel in 1894. Argyle Street, first Argyle Buildings, was the extension of the line of Adam's Pulteney Bridge (qv) into Sir William Pulteney's Bathwick Estate. The estate passed to his daughter, Henrietta Laura in 1792, but building work had already begun on Laura Place in 1788.
SOURCES: R.E.M. Peach, Bath: Old and New (1891), 125-28; A.W. Wills, The History of Argyle Congregational Church, Bath (1938); Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath (2nd ed. 1980), 60-62; Neil Jackson, Nineteenth Century Bath. Architects and Architecture (1991), 52 & 61; Christopher Stell, Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses of South-West England (RCHME 1991), 164. Drawings of both Baldwin¿s original and Goodridge¿s 1821 elevation in Bath Reference Library.

Listing NGR: ST7523765023

External Links

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

Other nearby listed buildings

BritishListedBuildings.co.uk is an independent online resource and is not associated with any government department. All government data published here is used under licence. Please do not contact BritishListedBuildings.co.uk for any queries related to any individual listed building, planning permission related to listed buildings or the listing process itself.

British Listed Buildings is a Good Stuff website.