Survey Data
Reg No
22504099
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social, Technical
Previous Name
Waterford Methodist Church
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Museum/gallery
Date
1880 - 1890
Coordinates
261042, 112420
Date Recorded
16/07/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay double-height Gothic Revival Methodist church, built 1885, with single-bay single-storey gabled advanced porch to north-west. Extensively renovated, 1999, with dividing floor inserted forming two-storey space to accommodate use as gallery. Pitched slate roofs with red clay ridge tiles, cut-stone coping having sproketed finials to apexes, and cast-iron rainwater goods on moulded cut-stone eaves. Random rubble limestone walls with cut-granite dressings including buttresses, quoins to corners, stringcourses, and decorative panels to gables. Trefoil-headed window openings to ground floor entrance (west) front in stepped arrangement with cut-granite block-and-start surrounds, and fixed-pane fittings. Pointed-arch window openings to first floor in tripartite arrangement on cut-granite apron having quatrefoil panels, block-and-start surrounds with hood mouldings over, and cut-granite mullions and tracery forming paired trefoil-headed openings with cinquefoils to arches. Fixed-pane leaded stained glass windows. Pointed-arch window openings to nave with fixed-pane fittings. Rose window to gable to east with cut-granite surround and tracery, and fixed-pane leaded stained glass fittings. Pointed-arch door opening to porch with cut-granite surround having hood moulding over, moulded reveals with engaged colonettes, and tongue-and-groove timber panelled double doors with wrought iron hinges. Full-height interior open in to roof remodelled, 1999, with timber floor inserted to first floor on steel girder frame, cut-sandstone pointed arches to west and to former chancel (east) having hood mouldings over, and exposed timber roof construction on moulded corbels. Road fronted with concrete footpath to front.
Appraisal
An appealing small-scale Gothic Revival Methodist Church, designed by Sir Thomas Drew (1838 – 1910). Although extensively remodelled to the interior to accommodate its present use, the exterior retains its original form and character, and is a picturesque feature in a streetscape of disparate styles, including medieval, Georgian, and Victorian period architecture. The construction of the church reveals high quality stone masonry, particularly to the carved detailing throughout. The interior incorporates early-surviving features of importance, including stained glass panels of artistic merit, and an open timber roof construction of technical or engineering interest. The church is of additional significance as a reminder of the once-thriving Methodist population in Waterford City.