Worthing Tabernacle
Encyclopedia
Worthing Tabernacle is an independent Evangelical
Christian church in the town and borough of Worthing
, one of seven local government districts in the English
county of West Sussex
. The present building, with its distinctive pale stone exterior and large rose window
, dates from 1908, but the church was founded in 1895 in a chapel built much earlier in the 19th century during a period when the new seaside resort's population was growing rapidly. In its present form, the church is affiliated with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
. English Heritage
has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
. One such chapel was built in 1839—probably by Charles Hide, a locally important architect and builder—on Montague Street (the old road to Heene
), for independent (non-denominational) Christian
worship. The chapel was known as the Tabernacle. It later became associated with Calvinism
and Congregationalist
worship, and was also used briefly in 1854 as an Anglican
church (during which time it was temporarily dedicated to St John the Baptist
). By 1893, when local architect Resta Moore had designed a new Classical-style
façade, the building had been renamed Montague Hall (and later St James's Hall) and had been used for many purposes: it held concerts, theatre productions and lectures as well as the religious services of various Christian denominations.
C. Douglas Crouch, originally from Bromley
in Kent
, was a pastor
at Worthing Baptist
Church, which was founded in Montague Hall in 1879 and moved to a new building two years later. He left the church in 1895 and founded a new independent church—the Worthing Tabernacle—in Montague Hall. This was the building's final religious use: in 1908, it was bought by two musician brothers who turned it into a shop and concert hall. In that year, architect James Lund was commissioned to design a new chapel for the congregation. A site on Chapel Road, near St Paul's Church
, was chosen. The new building was registered for worship in 1908, and has been used since then.
Worthing Tabernacle was listed at Grade II by English Heritage
on 2 December 1988. As of February 2001, it was one of 198 Grade II-listed buildings, and 213 listed buildings of all grades, in the Borough of Worthing. (These totals have since changed because of new listings and delistings.)
Sunday services, meetings and other social events take place in the chapel, and groups meet for worship in private houses in the Worthing area. The Tabernacle is also associated with the Maybridge Christian Fellowship, an Evangelical church founded in 1954 in Worthing's Maybridge estate.
. James Lund combined the Gothic Revival
and Romanesque Revival
styles in his design, and used pale stone rubble
with Bath stone
quoins
and dressings on the street frontage. The side and rear walls were executed in brick, and the building has a slate
roof. The façade is dominated by a large, twelve-lobed rose window
which sits above a six-lancet
range at first-floor level. Below this, and a thin stone course
which separates the two floors, is a set of three narrow arched windows with a single window on each side. The façade is flanked by tapering buttress
es which terminate in a pair of pinnacles alongside the gable
end. On each side of the buttresses are identical, partly recessed wings, shorter than the main façade, with round-arched entrance doors set below small gables and paired rectangular windows. The north and south sides, of dark brick with red-brick details, also have rounded lancet window
s and gables.
Inside, the "remarkable roof structure" is supported by ornate iron pillars which pierce the wooden galleries on each side and hold up the main beams. These are topped by intricately designed capitals
. A partly granite
chancel arch divides the interior into two bays
. In the front bay, an elaborate double-deck pulpit
, carved wooden galleries and pew
s survive from when the church was built. To the rear of the chapel, a modern organ
and case have replaced the original equipment, which was apparently retrieved from Walmer Castle
in Kent.
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Christian church in the town and borough of Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, one of seven local government districts in the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
county of West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
. The present building, with its distinctive pale stone exterior and large rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
, dates from 1908, but the church was founded in 1895 in a chapel built much earlier in the 19th century during a period when the new seaside resort's population was growing rapidly. In its present form, the church is affiliated with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches is a network of over 500 independent, evangelical churches mainly in the United Kingdom that preach an evangelical faith...
. English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
History
Many places of worship were founded in Worthing after its incorporation as a town in 1803: the following decades were a period of rapid growth as a prestigious seaside resortSeaside resort
A seaside resort is a resort, or resort town, located on the coast. Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort.- Overview :...
. One such chapel was built in 1839—probably by Charles Hide, a locally important architect and builder—on Montague Street (the old road to Heene
Heene
Heene is a neighbourhood of the Borough of Worthing in West Sussex, England. It lies on the A259 road 0.6 miles west of the town centre.Heene comes from the word Hīun or Hīwun meaning family or household....
), for independent (non-denominational) Christian
Non-denominational Christianity
In Christianity, nondenominational institutions or churches are those not formally aligned with an established denomination, or that remain otherwise officially autonomous. This, however, does not preclude an identifiable standard among such congregations...
worship. The chapel was known as the Tabernacle. It later became associated with Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
and Congregationalist
United Reformed Church
The United Reformed Church is a Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 68,000 members in 1,500 congregations with some 700 ministers.-Origins and history:...
worship, and was also used briefly in 1854 as an Anglican
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
church (during which time it was temporarily dedicated to St John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
). By 1893, when local architect Resta Moore had designed a new Classical-style
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
façade, the building had been renamed Montague Hall (and later St James's Hall) and had been used for many purposes: it held concerts, theatre productions and lectures as well as the religious services of various Christian denominations.
C. Douglas Crouch, originally from Bromley
Bromley
Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, was a pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
at Worthing Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
Church, which was founded in Montague Hall in 1879 and moved to a new building two years later. He left the church in 1895 and founded a new independent church—the Worthing Tabernacle—in Montague Hall. This was the building's final religious use: in 1908, it was bought by two musician brothers who turned it into a shop and concert hall. In that year, architect James Lund was commissioned to design a new chapel for the congregation. A site on Chapel Road, near St Paul's Church
St Paul's Church, Worthing
St Paul's Church in Worthing, England, was opened in 1812 as the Worthing Chapel of Ease. It was built so that the residents and visitors to the newly created town of Worthing would not need to travel to the parish church of St Mary in Broadwater...
, was chosen. The new building was registered for worship in 1908, and has been used since then.
Worthing Tabernacle was listed at Grade II by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
on 2 December 1988. As of February 2001, it was one of 198 Grade II-listed buildings, and 213 listed buildings of all grades, in the Borough of Worthing. (These totals have since changed because of new listings and delistings.)
Sunday services, meetings and other social events take place in the chapel, and groups meet for worship in private houses in the Worthing area. The Tabernacle is also associated with the Maybridge Christian Fellowship, an Evangelical church founded in 1954 in Worthing's Maybridge estate.
Architecture
Worthing Tabernacle has a distinctive exterior and an imposing, elaborate interior laid out like an auditoriumAuditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...
. James Lund combined the Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
and Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
styles in his design, and used pale stone rubble
Rubble
Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture. This word is closely connected in derivation with "rubbish", which was formerly also applied to what we now call "rubble". Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as brash...
with Bath stone
Bath Stone
Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...
quoins
Quoin (architecture)
Quoins are the cornerstones of brick or stone walls. Quoins may be either structural or decorative. Architects and builders use quoins to give the impression of strength and firmness to the outline of a building...
and dressings on the street frontage. The side and rear walls were executed in brick, and the building has a slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
roof. The façade is dominated by a large, twelve-lobed rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
which sits above a six-lancet
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
range at first-floor level. Below this, and a thin stone course
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
which separates the two floors, is a set of three narrow arched windows with a single window on each side. The façade is flanked by tapering buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es which terminate in a pair of pinnacles alongside the gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
end. On each side of the buttresses are identical, partly recessed wings, shorter than the main façade, with round-arched entrance doors set below small gables and paired rectangular windows. The north and south sides, of dark brick with red-brick details, also have rounded lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s and gables.
Inside, the "remarkable roof structure" is supported by ornate iron pillars which pierce the wooden galleries on each side and hold up the main beams. These are topped by intricately designed capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
. A partly granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
chancel arch divides the interior into two bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
. In the front bay, an elaborate double-deck pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
, carved wooden galleries and pew
Pew
A pew is a long bench seat or enclosed box used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, or sometimes in a courtroom.-Overview:Churches were not commonly furnished with permanent pews before the Protestant Reformation...
s survive from when the church was built. To the rear of the chapel, a modern organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
and case have replaced the original equipment, which was apparently retrieved from Walmer Castle
Walmer Castle
Walmer Castle was built by Henry VIII in 1539–1540 as an artillery fortress to counter the threat of invasion from Catholic France and Spain. It was part of his programme to create a chain of coastal defences along England's coast known as the Device Forts or as Henrician Castles...
in Kent.