Details
TEWKESBURY
SO8932 BARTON STREET
859-1/6/48 (South side)
27/07/73 No.54A
Kingdom Hall, with classroom wing,
and boundary railings with gates
(Formerly Listed as:
BARTON STREET
(South side)
Congregational Church)
GV II
Meeting hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, former Congregational
chapel, with attached classroom wing, and with front boundary
railings and gates. 1820, galleries added 1828, classroom wing
1836 and 1839 (VCH).
Flemish (front) and English (return walls) bond brickwork,
asbestos-cement slate roof.
PLAN: a galleried chapel with portico, linked at the back by a
lobby to a long 2-storey service wing, offset to the left.
EXTERIOR: the former chapel has a 2-storey 3-bay front with 3
arched 25-pane sashes with radial heads above two 15-pane
sashes flanking a projecting square porch with central pair of
panelled C19 doors in an arched surround on 4 sandstone steps.
The porch has a cornice below a stone blocking-course.
The main wall, which has been rebuilt in the upper parts, has
a rendered blocking-course above a single brick string, and a
coped parapet, covering a low-pitched hipped roof. Both return
walls are plain, but that to the right has been rendered, and
there is a single sash near the back. The rear wall has a
central sash with radial head, flanked by 2 blind arches in
the upper part, and a 20-pane light, low left.
INTERIOR has been altered, and the roof is concealed by a late
C20 suspended ceiling at the level of the top of the former
balcony fronts; the balcony seating is said to remain in-situ.
The balconies, on 3 sides, are fronted by small fielded
panels, and are carried on slender cast-iron columns.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: across the full width of the front of the
hall at the pavement edge is a simple iron railing, with fine
wrought-iron central gates with overthrow and side supporters;
the railing returns to the front of the hall at the left, and
to the front of No.55 (not included) to the right.
The classroom wing is in brick with slate roof, with a lean-to
in brick with tile roof on the W side, linked to the main
building by a gabled 2-storey porch. In 7 bays, with 5 lights
and 2 blank panels at first floor, and 5 bays below, similar,
but with a door in bay 2. The outer face has a series of
blocked openings to segmental heads and stone cills at first
floor, above 3 arched 9-pane lights with radial heads; a
2-storey square block projects at the far end, and has a
panelled door with overlight. The gable towards the street is
cement rendered, and that at the outer end has a small blocked
opening to the gable, above 2 large blocked segmental-headed
openings with cills at first floor, and two C20 casements at
the ground floor. INTERIOR of the wing not inspected.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this wing built at a cost of »900 according
to Bennett (The History of Tewkesbury, 1830); it may have
served as a factory at some stage.
(Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 164;
Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-houses: Stell C:
Gloucestershire: London: 1986-: 100).
Listing NGR: SO8950432694
