Page 259 - Reading Mercury

The increase which soon took place in the Baptist denomination in this town after
the commencement of the ministry of the Rev. H.G. Scorey, together with the
dilapidated state into which the old chapel had fallen, rendered it necessary to erect a
new one. The corner stone was laid towards the close of last year, and the work
having been recently completed, the sacred edifice was opened on Thursday last, by a
series of services, which were attended by a very large number of persons many of
whom came from the neighbouring towns and villages. The new buildings consisted
of chapel 41½ feet wide and 51½ feet long, exclusive of lobbies; lecture room 32 feet
by 20 feet, and a private vestry for the minister. The chapel is intended to seat 100
persons on the ground floor and 200 in a gallery over the entrance lobbies. The design
is prepared to admit of side galleries being added when required when required. The
style of the building is Italian, freely treated in the general arrangements and
combination of the materials of which it is erected, viz. red and white bricks and
stone, the white bricks being mostly in bands and arches. Stone being used to protect
the projections of cornices, &c., and also as borders in the arches. All the windows
have ornamental cast iron sashes glazed with ground glass. The interior of the
building is very simple and chased. The baptistery is raised above the general level of
the chapel, and is floored over, forming an extensive platform, upon which stands the
minister’s desk, a very beautiful piece of workmanship, and design, executed in pitch-
pine, French polished. The platform is surmounted by an iron railing, painted in
lavender colour and slightly relieved with gold. The floor of the chapel is made to
incline from the entrance, by which plan the minister commands a view of the whole
of the congregation. The seats are low with plain bench end, and are without doors.
The most noticeable feature inside, is the segmental recessed termination behind the
minister’s platform with panelled and domed ceiling, designed, we are informed, not
only to be ornamental, but useful acoustically. The centre part of the ceiling is
painted, and slightly decorated with distempered lines and ornamental scrollwork at
the intersections. The chapel is lighted by two elegant gasoliers, suspended from the
ceiling, pained lavender colour, and relieved with gold. The whole of the wood-work
internally is stained and varnished. The chapel is heated by Mr. Hadem’s patent
system with which is comprised a general plan for the ventilation. The grave-yard
around has been re-arranged and the front fence removed, and four handsome piers
erected in harmony with the style of the building. The total cost of the building,
including heating, architect’s commission, &c., will be about £1,600., and considering
the size and the very substantial character of the work, it is one of the cheapest
structures recently erected in this neighbourhood.
The design was prepared by Messrs. Poulton and Woodman, architects of Reading,
and the works have been satisfactorily executed under their constant superintendence,
by Mr. John Wells, of the Kings-road, in the same town, whose tender was accepted
in a limited competition with the neighbouring builders.
The engagements of the day commenced with a prayer meeting at half-past six in
the morning, and another was held from eleven to twelve o’clock. In the afternoon,
service took place in the chapel, and there was a large congregation. The Rev. john
Aldis, pastor of the Baptist Chapel, Reading, read a portion of the scripture, and
offered up an earnest prayer, after which the Rev. W. Landels of the Diorama Chapel,
rd
th
Regent’s Park, preached from the 12 v. of the 3 ch. of Revelation, and his
discourse, to use the words of a speaker at the evening meeting, “was marked by a
power of illustration, purity of diction, loftiness of conception, and a sweep of thought
which it was seldom the privilege of a congregation to listen to.” The service having
been concluded with a prayer by the Rev. T. Welsh, of Reading, the large

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