Reasons for Designation
This later C19 Baptist church is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* The architectural interest of its exterior is high, in terms of
style and use of materials
* It is an early and experimental work by the celebrated
architect Edgar Wood, which anticipates his later more
developed work
* It has a virtually intact C19 interior with some quality carpentry
* It displays experimentation in construction and plan
Details
1483/0/10002
TEMPLE STREET
Temple Street Baptist Church
16-AUG-07
II
Baptist Church designed in 1889 by Edgar Wood.
MATERIALS: red, orange and yellow polychrome brickwork under roofs of welsh slate; timber and iron framework.
PLAN: the building is end onto the main road and of principal entry plan with the pulpit to the south west and main entrance to the north east. Flanking aisles contain separate schoolrooms.
EXTERIOR: FRONT (NORTH EAST) ELEVATION to Temple Street: the main gable of the church has a centrally placed round-arched entrance with original heavy paired doors; above this is an arcade of nine round-arched windows flanked by buttresses of alternating bands of red and yellow tile. Above this in a chequer of red and white tile, there is a large rose window. Flanking the main church gable there are smaller aisle gables in red tile with a rectilinear white tile pattern above triple round-arched windows. Finials surmount all three gables and that on the main gable is of four-tier form.
SIDE (NORTH WEST) ELEVATION: this has eight bays, the first five with nine-light trefoil headed lancets set in square-headed windows; the end three bays are slightly projecting and contain a plain entrance flanked to the left by a window with an inserted modern frame and to the right by a six-light lancet. A single storey extension, attached to the northwest and a two-storey timber clad building added to the south west end of the church in the 1960s are not of special interest.
INTERIOR: Heavy double doors with ornate ledges open into a rectangular vestibule with side doors into the north east end of the church. The wooden, panelled vestibule with a series of lights forming its upper stage, has applied feather banding. Within the church, a framework of timber and iron posts forming five bays, support the roof and internal sub-divisions. The high ceiling is coved and painted plaster. The aisles are separated from the main body of the church by wooden panelling, some with decorative frosted glass panels above and there are wooden doors leading into small Sunday school rooms formed by the subdivision of the aisles; at least one of these has fixed wooden seating around its sides and another has a small fireplace. Pitch pine benches with close-boarded backs and curved ends run down the centre of the church with flanking aisles separating these from additional space for occasional seating. The benches face a raised dais at the south west end reached by side stairs and flanked by double doors to either side. The sides and rear of the dais are enclosed by a rail, close boarded with turned balusters. The inserted organ occupies much of the painted brick wall to the rear of the dais where it blocks some original windows at this end. Panelling of this wall also mirrors the style of panelling forming the vestibule at the north east with applied feather banding. The pulpit is placed at one end of the dais and is formed of panels with quatrefoil decoration. Windows at the north east end have art nouveau style stained glass.
HISTORY: This church was built in 1889 and is depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1893. It was designed by the nationally renowned architect Edgar Wood (1860-1935) and is the earliest known surviving example of his work. Wood was born and educated in Middleton, Rochdale. After qualifying as an architect in 1885, he established a practice in Middleton and then subsequently at Oldham and Manchester. Temple Street Baptist Church represents an example of his first phase of work in which his buildings exhibit originality in design, the use of hard, resilient materials and are of no particularly fixed style. Wood went on to design many highly regarded buildings including churches such as the Grade II listed Silver Street Methodist Church, Rochdale (1893), the Grade II* listed Long Street Methodist Church, Middleton (1899) and his most famous and Grade I listed First Church of Christ Scientist, Manchester (1903-7).
SOURCES: Clare Hartwell, Matthew Hyde and Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England. Lancashire:Manchester and the South-East (2004), 511; John H. G. Archer, `Wood, Edgar (1860-1935, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; onl`ine edn, May 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/61675, accessed 5 July 2007]; Edwardian Architecture: A Biographical Dictionary by A. Stuart Gray.
REASON FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: This later C19 Baptist church is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* The architectural interest of its exterior is high, in terms of style
and use of materials
* It is an early and experimental work by the celebrated architect
Edgar Wood, which anticipates his later more developed work
* It has a virtually intact C19 interior with some quality carpentry
* It displays experimentation in construction and plan
