Description

CLAVERTON DOWN ROAD
(North side)

Claverton Down Gospel
Hall
05/08/75 II

Community hall. 1896-97. Silcock and Reay, architects.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, composition slate roof.
PLAN: Small, three-bay single-cell building with offset entrance porch, and gabled side entrance to small vestry.
STYLE: Arts and Crafts style with Art Nouveau detail.
EXTERIOR: Gabled front with battered sides as buttresses, extending front beyond body of chapel. Moulded coping to gable with finely carved winged angels in profile as kneelers above four-light ovolo mould mullioned window with restrained tulip pattern to leading of stained glass. Straight dripmould over with small carved head to centre and diamond pattern stops. Enclosed porch off centre to right with slight stepped batter to sides, roll moulded cornice and sloped parapet with coping. Ogee cusping to panels over door with double ogee, roll moulding to head of frame breaking through parapet. To each side, set high, are small two-light mullioned windows. Door has flower pattern to leaded light and good iron hinges and original handle and back-plate, and threshold is in large shaped single stone, cut to jambs. To left of door is rounded ogee arched foot scraper, stonework damaged. Sides have deep overhanging eaves immediately above close set three-light leaded stone-mullioned windows above small cast iron ventilating grilles, three to left, and two to right, beyond which is projecting porch, with two-light window below half-timbered spandrel, and large lateral stack with battered upper stage, and bold moulded side `cornices'. Porch also has plank door, with three glazed panels, with original strap hinges, under deep cantilevered gabled hood on bold curved wood brackets. East gable end is simpler than west front, with four-light stone mullioned window, with stylised pattern leading, under small vertical recessed vent, no figures at this end. Lead rainwater pipes, thick slate damp proof course visible all round.
INTERIOR: Three bays, queen-post trusses with central ogee strutting, carried on large stone corbels, and with inserted tie-rods below. Ceiling at collar level, all rafters exposed. Deep window embrasures have flat segmental heads, with flush splayed sills containing small cast iron ventilating grilles, central light also with opening vent, and below sill level walling is brown glazed brickwork in Flemish bond. Entrance end part-glazed entrance door, and to right shallow recess. Far end, right, further small recess, formerly with small heating stove, beyond which is door with three steps down to very small vestry space, also with fire recess. Parquet block floor, with glazed tile to entrance lobby.
HISTORY: An unusual example of Arts and Crafts architecture, applied on a small scale. It was provided as a community hall for the area, but fell from use in the 1950's; it has recently (late 1990s) been converted to residential use.
SOURCES: (Jackson N: Nineteenth Century Bath - Architects and Architecture: Bath: 1991-: 242).
Listing NGR: ST7700664070

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26673281

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

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  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
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