The Wesleyan Church of St Sidwell's, Exeter

摘要

The restoration of the earliest known example of structural reinforced masonry to have been used in the UK has been at the Grade 11~* listed St Sidwell's Methodist Church, Exeter. The church, with its ornate external facade, contains much character, and is an impressive illustration of the flourishing of Methodism, particularly in the West Country, at the beginning of the 20th Century. Square in plan at ground level, and designed in a rich Edwardian Baroque style with Art Nouveau details and glass, the building becomes octagonal at the level of a gallery, and features a domed roof supporting a glazed octagonal lantern with Palladian windows and circular cupola. The rich and complete Methodist chapel retains its original interior fittings, screens, doors, pews, a gallery with cast iron front panels, an organ and organ-case pulpit and a holy table, making it a landmark building in the City of Exeter. Halls and meeting rooms are used by local community groups, and the chapel itself has a fine manual organ and can seat 600 people, making it an excellent venue for the performance of music, with good acoustics. However, the building became unusable for safety reasons in 2001, exactly 100 years after it was first designed, when sections of concrete and plaster fell from the soffits of the reinforced concrete lantern base.