Church Heritage Record 610150

5-bay aisled nave with galleries, low 2-bay chancel with organ chamber and vestries at the west end, vestibule with (relocated) organ above and staircases housed in shallow transepts at the east end; south porch.

Nave 60ft (19m) long, 50ft (15.8m) wide. Chancel 12ft (3.8m) long and 25ft (7.9m) wide.

The chapel was built in 1812 by the architect John B Rebecca of Worthing, while the original interior was designed by Charles Hide (these men were also responsible for several other buildings within the town).  The work was financed by private donations and by the unusual method of pew rents, whereby each donor was required to buy blocks of pews which were later rented out or sold, even being offered at auctions.  The chapel was favoured at this time by royal patronage, particularly female royalty (Queen Charlotte, Princess Augusta and others) taking the waters at Worthing.  The Commissioners allocated a parish to the church in 1893, which was redesigned by R S Hyde to fulfil this new role, with a new shallow two-bay chancel with vestries and organ chamber built onto the west end of the building, new south porch and internal re-ordering.  The original iron rails around the east end of the church were removed shortly afterwards.  The church was damaged in the Blitz, and repaired after the war.  A church hall was added in 1964 to the north side with a connecting passage at the north-west corner, at which time repairs were undertaken to the fabric of the building.  The rendered east portico and transepts were painted white in 1975.

The church is neo-classical in style, with strong Greek Revivalist characteristics in the oldest parts of the building.  The dominating architectural feature is the heavy Doric portico at the east end, which has a moulded triangular pediment with blank tympanum. The four portico columns are unfluted, and have plain flat round capitals and square abaci.  The floor and steps to the portico are of York flagstones.

The east front behind the portico is framed by corner pilasters, as are the shallow transepts.  There were originally two single tall rectangular windows in each of these transepts illuminating the fine internal spiral stairwells, but now the lower of these are blocked.  The remaining upper windows still have their original glazing bars.

The east facade is pierced by two round-headed doorways with labels, giving access to staircases to the flanking galleries housed within the transepts and to the vestibule.  Between these is a central square-headed two-light window with a pediment above.  At the base of this pediment is a string-course which continues at this height around the building.  Another string-course similarly continues from the base of the portico pediment.  Set slightly back from the portico is a rather squat domed cupola on a square base.  This has a frieze of bold Greek-key decoration around the base of the dome.

The nave roof is low-pitched, with queen-posts and tie-beams which span the entire width of the nave. Failure of some of the timbers has resulted in the church being closed for worship since 1995.  The roof is invisible from the road as it is contained within a plain parapet wall. 

The aisles and clearstorey have five  (respectively) segmental and tall round-headed windows.  The western south aisle window is now blocked by the external south porch, which was added in 1893 following the construction of the chancel at the west end, in order to facilitate access to the latter. The windows of the porch, the clearstorey of the chancel, and the chancel transepts are also round-headed, and were obviously intended to conform to the older windows.

The whole effect of the exterior view is, or rather was, simple, compact and powerful rather than sophisticated, light and graceful, reflecting the rediscovery of Greek Doric at this time; Nairn called it an “ugly, tough-minded little building”, but this will not be everyone’s reaction.  The neatness of the original view from the south has been somewhat compromised by the additions at the west end and the buildings on the south side of Ambrose Place, while the church hall now blocks the view from the north.  The east portico is however still as prominent a part of the townscape as ever.

The character of the interior was much changed in 1893 by the addition of the chancel at the west end and the consequent reorientation and reordering.  Prior to this, the chapel was a “preaching box” with galleries on three sides and a huge three-decker pulpit at the east end above which the organ rose, with the communion table tucked in behind, an arrangement more familiar from non-conformist chapels.  The reordering entailed the removal of the original pulpit and the nave box pews, which were replaced by bench pews and conventional choir stalls.

The west gallery was removed and the wall pierced to give access to the new chancel.  The chancel arch has egg-and-dart mouldings and a moulded keystone, and is carried on a Roman Doric entablature with moulded architrave, blank frieze and again egg-and-dart mouldings.  This is supported by a pair of detached columns, with scroll-moulded bases and capitals with egg-and–dart enriched echini and ornamented hypotrachelia (rosettes), again typical Roman Doric.  The chancel wall itself has pilasters continuing above the cornice to the ceiling, which frame inset panels and the spandrels above the chancel arch. 

The pilasters flank arched entrances either side of the chancel arch giving access to the vestries, which have double arched openings back into the chancel itself (clearstorey above with pairs of round-headed windows), of which the north-west arch is blank and contains a tablet commemorating an incumbent. 

The west wall behind the altar is decorated with alabaster and green marble panels around an ornate neo-classical Italianate reredos (see below).  The sanctuary has a gilded coffered barrel-vaulted ceiling.  The floor is of marble tesserae, with Greek-key patterns in black, brown and white (woodblock floor in the nave). This profusion of decorative features in the chancel contrasts with the austere simplicity of the Greek Doric used in the original parts of the building (nave, portico).

The nave has a timber panelled ceiling. The aisles have galleries above which are supported by piers of the same design and proportions as those supporting the portico.  The gallery fronts are of two parts, the lower having double panels between stanchions, the upper consisting of a balustraded rail.  The fronts have been painted white since 1927.  At the west end the galleries sweep round to meet the outer walls.  The pews all face inwards, so reordering was not necessary after the altar was moved to the west end, hence their survival.

The organ pipes dominate the view of the internal east facade.  Mounted on the wall underneath this are the Royal Arms (see below), which were originally  (pre-1893)  mounted on a canopy above the west gallery.  The vestibule below this consists of a central space (now the baptistery, previously the altar and vestry) lit by the two-light stained glass window described above, flanked by the staircases to the galleries.