The church was built in 1838 as a
Wesleyan Methodist Church,[1] and was partly rebuilt in 1885–86 by
James Hibbert.[2] It was later converted into a Pentecostal church.[1] Since 2016 it is being used as a Mosque.
Architecture
The church is built in brick (red on the front and brown on the sides) with
sandstone dressings and a
slate roof. It has a rectangular plan with its entrance on the east side, a small addition to the rear, and is in two storeys with a basement. At the entrance front is a projecting single-storey porch, wider than the body of the church, in five
bays. It stands on a stone
plinth, is symmetrical, and contains three round-headed doorways approached by steps, all with
mouldedarchitraves and
fanlights. The central doorway has two pairs of
Tuscan columns, and the outer doorways are flanked by
pilasters. Between the doorways are round-headed windows with architraves, and there are similar but larger windows on the sides of the porch. Above the doorways is a continuous
frieze and
cornice. Above the outer windows and on the sides of the porch is a
balustrade. The upper storey contains five windows with round moulded heads, and a band of square panels above them. At the top is a
pediment containing a stone inscribed with the date of original building. Along the sides of the church are five bays with two tiers of round headed windows. Inside the church is a horseshoe-shaped gallery carried on slim
cast iron columns with
Ioniccapitals. At the west end is a large arch with
fluted pilasters.[1]