Unitarian Church

Reasons for Designation

The Unitarian Church in Notte Street is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * The church is a high quality, carefully-considered composition by a recognised national firm of architects, the Louis de Soissons Partnership * Its neo-Georgian style is well-handled, and gives this small church gravity and elegance * The materials and craftsmanship are of good quality, and the work is crisply executed * The church retains its high quality, architect-designed fittings, and the building is almost completely unaltered since its completion * The Unitarian Church forms a coherent group with the adjacent Catherine Street Baptist Church (by the same architect), the earlier Anglican parish church of St Andrew (C15, Grade I) and the Synagogue (C18 and C19, Grade II*), both listed, which lie immediately to the north; the four buildings represent a microcosm of the range of worship in the post-war city

Details

PLYMOUTH

740-1/0/10130 NOTTE STREET 17-SEP-08 UNITARIAN CHURCH

GV II A Unitarian church built in 1957-8 in a neo-Georgian style, designed by Richard Fraser of the Louis de Soissons Partnership.

MATERIALS: The church is constructed from limestone ashlar and rendered brick, with blue slate and copper roofs and copper-clad spire on a timber belfry. The interior of the church has hardwood block flooring and light oak fittings.

PLAN: The church is square on plan, with a slightly narrower narthex porch projecting to the south, and an attached range to the north west providing service rooms and a meeting hall.

EXTERIOR: The church is a high single storey set on a slightly projecting moulded plinth; there is a single bay to each elevation, and the building is set under a hipped roof with overhanging eaves and a tall, slender central spire. The corners of the building are widely clad in limestone ashlar with channelled rustication; the wide, recessed central panels thus created are rendered, each with a single high window with a segmental head, set in a slightly recessed surround. A narrow plat band of limestone links the window heads with the rusticated sections to either side, and is continuous around the building. The main elevation to the south has a portico porch with panelled hardwood double doors and panelled returns, reached by three steps. Above the pediment of the porch is a segmental-headed timber window with curved glazing bars to its top. To the east and west, the timber windows are similar, each of multiple panes, with curved sections to their tops. A plaque which reads UNITARIAN CHAPEL 1831, re-used from the congregation's earlier church, is set low in the west wall. The rear, north wall has an unrelieved rendered panel at its centre. The slender spire with a ball and point finial, is set atop an octagonal timber lantern. The additional range to the north west is a single storey, with a shallow hipped roof clad in copper sheeting and four segmental headed window openings set in slightly recessed surrounds to east and west, with similar smaller openings to the northernmost bays. The windows are three-over-three sashes with segmental heads. The entrance to the hall is a double doorway set under a very wide segmental arch with a recessed surround and panelled hardwood doors.

INTERIOR: The interior of the church has a raised daïs in light oak at its northern end, a light hardwood floor and light oak altar, pulpit and organ. The central section of the ceiling is raised and coffered, its margin defined by a moulding. The walls are sectioned by applied timber strips running full-height, emphasising the loftiness of the space; alternating tiled and plastered sections further articulating the surfaces. Behind the altar is a full-height, unattributed mural painting depicting figures in a rowing boat on a stormy sea. The windows have moulded timber architraves. There is a wide, obscure-glazed opening to the narthex porch with double doors and flanking doors. The porch has a hardwood block floor and doors to lavatories. The interior of the ancillary range is largely taken up by a meeting hall, which also houses a vestry/office, kitchen and lavatories.

HISTORY: The history of the Unitarian congregation in Plymouth begins in 1662 when the clergy of the parish of St Andrew's refused to adopt the revised Book of Common Prayer imposed by Parliament in that year. The vicar of St Andrew's, the Reverend George Hughes, and the lecturer, Thomas Martyn, George Hughes' brother-in-law, were imprisoned on Drake's Island, off Plymouth, as punishment for their dissent. The circumstances of the time did not permit the congregation to have a settled place of worship or a settled minister, except possibly for a brief period following the short-lived Declaration of Indulgence in 1672. By the time that the Act of Toleration, which gave dissenters greater security, was passed in 1689, the congregation had settled in the vicinity of Treville Street. Around 1702, under the Reverend Nathaniel Harding, the congregation built their own meeting-house in Treville Street. It was during the ministry of the Reverence Henry Moore, Harding's successor, that the congregation moved towards Unitarianism. In 1831, the then Unitarian meeting-house was taken down and a new Unitarian chapel, opened in 1832, was erected on the site, with Mr W J Odgers as minister. This church stood until the Second World War blitz on Plymouth, when it was destroyed during the night of 20 March 1941. The congregation had hoped to rebuild their church on the same site, but the city council's plan for the reconstruction of the ruined heart of Plymouth necessitated the compulsory purchase of the area, requiring the congregation to find a new site for their church. The current building was designed for the congregation by the Louis de Soissons Partnership and built in 1957-8.

SOURCES: Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England: Devon (1989) 647

The Unitarian Church in Notte Street is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: the church is a high quality, carefully-considered composition by a recognised national firm of architects, the Louis de Soissons Partnership * Design quality: its neo-Georgian style is well-handled, and gives this small church gravity and elegance * Materials: the materials and craftsmanship are of good quality, and the work is crisply executed * Interior: the church retains all of its high quality, architect-designed fittings, and the building is almost completely unaltered since its completion * Group Value: it forms a coherent group with the adjacent Catherine Street Baptist Church (designed at the same time by the same architect, also listed Grade II), the earlier Anglican parish church of St Andrew (C15, Grade I) and the Synagogue (C18 and C19, Grade II*), which lie immediately to the north; the four buildings represent a microcosm of the range of worship in the post-war city

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

504606

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry