Survey Data

Reg No

21522004


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic, Social, Technical


Original Use

Church/chapel


In Use As

Building misc


Date

1850 - 1860


Coordinates

158808, 156105


Date Recorded

25/07/2005


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached single-storey single-bay gabled mortuary chapel, built c. 1855, having two-bay sides, with buttressing articulating window piers, and bowed blind arcaded apse to rear. Elaborately conceived limestone ashlar belfry rises from southern gable to which apsidal elevation is attached. Sacristy wing attached to west elevation with abutting chimneystack. Pitched natural slate roof and interlocking secondary roof structures. Slate replaced to sacristy by sheet metal, and lost exposing timber batons to much of western pitch. Cast-iron rainwater goods survive in part. Squared and snecked hammered limestone ashlar walls with original flush pointing, rising to form gable with limestone ashlar parapet coping which is surmounted by apexes. Smooth limestone ashlar bands to elevations returning around rock-faced limestone buttresses. North elevation comprising tall pointed arch rising from unfinished colonnettes with cushion capitals, on a raised base, set in negative reveal to support bull nose moulded smooth ashlar limestone arch, with stopped hood moulding above. Oculus to tympanum with limestone tracery, which is proud of the recessed glazing, forming four linked circles with quatrefoil tracery inset. Pointed-arch window openings with smooth ashlar tracery comprising pointed arch vertical openings with circular tracery above having sexfoil inner tracery. Windows blocked-up from inside with additional sheet metal covering. Square-headed door opening, with corbelled corners, bull nose profiled reveals, and sheet metal gates. Square-headed sacristy door with half-dormer gable rising from corbelled blocks, and having sheet metal door with original wrought-iron hinges. Fine interior with High Church decoration influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, seen in the highly decorative wall mosaics, polychromatic floor tiles, carved stone altar, hammerbeam nave roof and the orignal carved timber pews. Fine pinnacled Spillane monument to southeast within immediate hard surface site surrounding chapel.

Appraisal

A Celtic Revival and Gothic Revival essay in design, this fine chapel is located at a pivotal axial position within Mount Saint Lawrence's cemetery terminating the vista of the principal avenue within, framed by copper beeches. It sets the solemn tone for the site, which is populated by some of the finest nineteenth-century funerary monuments in the city. With an uncertain future due to lack of effective maintenance and wanton vandalism, this fine jewel-like mortuary chapel is in need of urgent and immediate restoration.