History

Built in 1890 as Wesleyan chapel at a cost of nearly £5000, following erection of Sunday School (1882/3) at rear of the site which, in turn, replaced an earlier chapel (1862) at Cathays Terrace. Interior altered c1991 by installation of new floor at gallery level and new foyer area, lift and stairs, within space of original chapel; original windows replaced with plastic windows; new, glass-fronted vestibule added in front of entrance. Adjoining Sunday School leased out as furniture store.

Exterior

Neo-classical style with towered facade fronting very rare basilician chapel with clerestory. Built of coursed, rock-faced Pennant sandstone with Bath stone window surrounds, dressings and Bath stone string courses interspersed with red brick. Slate, stepped-pitch roof over main building. Tall and imposing gabled front, formerly with openwork cupolas to domed roofs of stair towers. Central entrance obscured by later vestibule; twin, round-headed windows to first floor and circular window with simple tracery in pediment. Flanking and slightly-projecting stair towers finished with pediments on each side and with round-headed doorway on lower floor and round-headed window framed between pilasters on upper floor. Side elevation of stair towers incorporate two small round-headed windows at lower floor rising to reflect stairs inside. Side elevation of chapel divided into five bays by pilasters and tall round-headed windows with stepped yellow brick surrounds. Small round-headed windows with Bath stone surrounds in groups of three to each bay at clerestory level. Front elevation of Sunday School in three bays with gabled end bays incorporating slightly pointed windows in echelon with Perp tracery and flat-topped centre bay with two doorways and above slightly pointed window couplets.

Interior

Original chapel space divided vertically into two separate rooms. Lower room retains gallery balustrading (painted over previously varnished wood-work) on four sides, supported on round, cast-iron ground-floor columns with Tuscan capitals. Upper room retains round, cast-iron columns (at former gallery level) with composite capitals and semi-circular linking arches between columns. Raised centre section of roof with flat, boarded ceiling and round-headed clerestory windows in triplets; two ceiling ventilators replaced by flat panels. Ceilings to aisles supported on simple triangular, wooden trusses. Large, pre-1914 organ by Harrison and Harrison of Durham, in grand, semi-circular recess behind modern pulpit. Chapel originally had pews to seat 850. Room below original chapel has round cast-iron columns and is divided into smaller rooms by partitions.

Reasons for Listing

Listed, despite interior alterations, because of the architectural quality and spacious feel of the interior due to its roof construction, clerestory lighting and detailing. Externally, the chapel remains, despite the added vestibule, an imposing and important element of the Crwys Road townscape.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Cathays Methodist Church at Wikipedia
• Cathays Methodist Church official website
• Wikidata Q28449661

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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