Caersalem Baptist Chapel, including schoolroom & Forecourt railings

Cadw's description

Location

Situated on corner of Marsh Street and Emma Street

Exterior

1893 Baptist Chapel in brown snecked rubble with Bath stone ashlar dressings and slate roof. Italianate Classical style, 2-storey elevations, 3-window to sides, 3-window north east end facade with superimposed orders of Tuscan pilasters, cornice and pediment. Cornice is inscribed 'Caersalem Baptist Chapel', pediment has keyed roundel vent inscribed 'Built 1893'. Windows are arched in ashlar surrounds with imposts and keystones. Centre paired arched windows with roundel under overall arch. All windows have timber 2-light tracery with roundels in heads. Ground floor has broad ashlar cornice and big Tuscan ashlar porch, pedimented and corniced with 2 columns to front and pilaster responds. Arched doorway with big fanlight and 5-panel double doors. Pediment eaves and side eaves are of painted moulded timber. Sides have 3 arched windows each floor, those below shorter. Rear wall has 2 similar upper windows and keyed roundel in pediment. Single storey attached schoolroom, gabled to north and south with 2 arched windows similar to those on chapel, in each end wall and roundel in gable. Rear long wall is rendered with centre shallow gable. Roundel and 2 arched windows without ashlar frames. Lean-to porch against south wall of chapel, facing east, with 4 panel door and overlight in ashlar arched frame with imposts and keystone.

Forecourt to front and south side with low rubble wall and spearhead railings with intersected oval bars, matching gates in cast-iron Gothic gatepiers, marked 'Thomas and Clement, Llanelly'.

Interior

Three-sided galleries on 3 x 3 cast-iron Corinthian columns with timber cornice. Gallery front of fluted pilasters between sections with pierced cast iron rail above plain panels. Pulpit has ornate cast-iron front rail and Venetian arched wall recess behind. Long windows each side have stained glass. Elliptical curved 'set fawr' with pierced iron panels. Boarded ceiling with coved cornice, and deep centre vent roundel, the vents in vertical plan with acanthus leaf band below and rose above. Ceiling divided by straight and diagonal ribs.