Westgate Chapel (Unitarian) - Westgate Chapel, High Street, Lewes, UK
N 50° 52.312 E 000° 00.403
31U E 289403 N 5639845
The Westgate Chapel, set off the south side of Lewes High Street, became a meeting-house in 1700 for Dissenters who had left the Church of England in 1662 and later became Unitarians.
Waymark Code: WMV002
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/30/2017
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The full wording on the stone plaque attached to the chapel's wall is:
1595
The congreation of
Westgate Chapel
originated in 1662
and first assembled here
for public worship in 1700
Another plaque, nearby, additionally tells us:
Westgate Chapel
The large 'back addition' to the medieval Bull Inn was built in 1583 by Sir Henry Goring, who used the whole building as his town house.
In 1700 the Elizabethan part was made into a meeting-house for Dissenters who had left the Church of England in 1662.
First known as 'Presbyterians' and later as "Unitarians' or 'Free Christians', they have continued to emphasise religious freedom and tolerance. Thomas Walker Horsfield, historian of Sussex and champion of Catholic Emancipation, ministered here from 1817 to 1827.
In 1913 John H Every, the Lewes iron-founder, had the meeting-house divided into chapel, hall and vestibule. Since 1987 the hall has housed the One World Centre - an embodiment of Westgate's historic commitment to universal brotherhood.
The building is Grade II* listed with the entry at the Historic England website advising:
Chapel. 1583, converted 1698, altered and restored in C19. Timber- framed. Knapped flint cladding on high plinth with chamfered stone plinth band. Tilehung above to righthand side of east end. Part tilehung and part plastered entrance front to north.
North front: Doorway in red brick porch with paired half-glazed doors and flat hood on console brackets over. Plaque over porch recording origin of chapel.
East front: Two 6-light chamfered transom and mullion windows on east end that to right surrounded by tilehanging and wood, that to left stone with three-light chamfered mullion window above. Plain tiled roofs.
Interior: Main chapel: High dado panelling with four recessed arches on tall round (probably wooden) columns to north. That at right open below impost level, centre pair with tall three-light cavetto-mullioned diamond-lattice windows lighting room beyond. Tall six-light cavetto-mullioned diamond-latticed windows at east and west ends and two on south side. Late C19 organ in recess next to sanctuary. C19 carved panelled pulpit on right of sanctuary. Arched recess above dado panelling on south side wall, original position of pulpit prior to 1913. Moulded stone octagonal font on octagonal stem. Church hall: Dado panelling, C19. Two heavy beams on wooden brackets, supported at the south by the columns. The hall and vestibule were divided from the chapel in 1915. Small panelled and be-bookshelved minister's room adjoining on south side.