Abergavenny Baptist Church

Cadw's description

Location

On a very prominent corner site at junction of Frogmore Street and Pen-y-pound set in small yard behind balustraded dwarf wall.

History

Dated 1877 above entrance doors. Architect, George Morgan of Carmarthen, (1834-1915). Cost of chapel £4200. Unaltered externally but the interior has been changed by the introduction in 1977 of a main floor at gallery level.

Exterior

Built in snecked bullnose local brown sandstone, pale Bath limestone quoins and dressings, natural slate roofs. Large rectangular chapel with gable end to the street. In a free version of Northern Italian Romanesque style. Gabled entrance front flanked by two 3-stage towers. Towers have steep hipped roofs with bell-cast and wrought-iron cresting, and clasping buttresses treated as superimposed pilasters in a semi-classical manner. The ground stage has a paired light with a colonette and stiff-leaf capital, heavy cornice band over. The second stage is taller and has a lancet with oculus above. Top stages treated as bell stages with open Romanesque stilted arches. In the central gable, arcading based on Lombardic Italian models, below this a large 8-light rose window is set under arched surround with oculi in lower spandrels. Single-storey open porch has round arched doorways with Romanesque shafts and stiff-leaf capitals, two openings to front, one to sides. Double entrance doorways with pierced tympana. Panelled doors.
Side elevations have six tall recessed bays in two clear storeys, the bays separated by thin pilaster buttresses. Bracketed cornice, enriched as floral capitals on tower buttresses. On first floor, pairs of round arched windows with central columns, on ground floor, pairs of square headed windows. End bay (north-west) is narrower with only one window on each floor. The end bay (south-east) is the return of the towers. These have an arched light on the ground stage and upper stages as on the main front. To rear (north-west), lower projection for vestries with gable chimney.

Interior

Now in two storeys with floor at former gallery level. Ground floor now school rooms and is very plain, and upper floor now chapel. Original seating, tiered on the former balcony, organ recess. Parts of former gallery balustrade reused in organ screen. Roof unaltered, coved and panelled with central recessed area, main ribs supported on large console brackets. Stained glass in rose window. Fine organ in arched recess with the arch inscribed 'GOD IS A SPIRIT WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH'.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a fine example of George Morgan's Romanesque chapel style and for major townscape importance.