1521

 

II  

Designated  

16/09/1991  

14/02/1994  

Sussex Street Baptist Church  

 

Denbighshire  

Rhyl  

 

Rhyl  

300706  

381502  

 

Set back from the street midway between Queen Street and High Street.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Built 1862-3; with F D Johnson of Birmingham as architect, and James Taylor Jnr of Rhyl, the builder. Foundation stone laid July 1862 and chapel opened 1863. Major renovation in 1917, and another in 1951-63, especially to the front. The English Baptist Church was founded by a number of local Baptists together with some industrialists from Cheshire and Lancashire who came to Rhyl each summer, and originally the church was only opened in the summer months.  

Tall, Classical 3-bay front with full-height Corinthian columned portico. Redbrick with painted freestone dressings including vermiculated quoins, plinth, deep cornice (altered following erosion of mouldings) and parapet with central pediment; panelled band formerly ran the full width. Italiantate, tall, 2-light windows with central transom at gallery level; bracketed sills and sill band. Round-arched entrance with double doors, panelled reveals and tall keystone linked to circular window above; this and flanking windows all have deep hood moulds with paired impost brackets and keystones. Facade is returned 1-baybay around corner. Main body of chapel is slate roofed and has small-pane sash windows. Rusticated architraves to cement rendered left-hand side and simple polychrome decoration to redbrick right-hand side including impost and sill banding, alternating blue and redbrick voussoirs and yellow brick bracket cornice. Attached panelled gate piers. Altered transverse hall to left at rear.  

Gallery along front wall and tall panel to rear wall behind former position of set fawr; includes roundel, egg and dart ornament and enormous keystone. Steeply raked seating. The set fawr itself, the pulpit, and the front pews have been removed. Impost band and architraves to windows, the former swept up beside gallery. Baptistery beneath floor; Gothic organ case. Trusses boarded in at collar level. Lobby has depressed arch opposite main entrance and single staircase to gallery. Hall above schoolroom at rear.  

Listed for its townscape importance in the centre of Rhyl, and for its interest to the history of the Baptist movement in this area; its establishment and early history serves to illustrate the growth of Rhyl as a holiday resort for primarily English visitors.