York Historic Environment Record

Salem Chapel, St. Saviourgate, was built in 1839 to the design of J. P. Pritchett, architect, of York for the Trustees of the Lendal Chapel. The chapel ceased to be used as a place of worship in 1934 and was pulled down in 1963.

The chapel, rectangular on plan, was designed to accommodate a congregation of 1,700 with a schoolroom in a basement below. The walls were of brick, stuccoed on the S. front, with stone dressings. The symmetrical S. front was designed in five bays; the centre part was recessed behind two Ionic columns in antis. Above, an entablature ran the full width of the front and there was a small attic storey over the three middle bays surmounted by a crowning feature with scroll-work. The door and window openings had battered sides. The treatment of the front, stuccoed with pilasters and entablature, was returned for one bay on each side, beyond which was plain brick walling with three ranges of plain windows; the bottom range lit the basement; the windows in the top range were round-headed.

Inside, a gallery carried on cast-iron Ionic columns was U-shaped, extending round the E., S. and W. sides, with a small upper gallery across the S. end carried on timber Corinthian columns. At the N. end the main gallery front was continued across a recess which accommodated the organ. The recess was flanked by Corinthian pilasters carrying an enriched segmental arch. The floor of the chapel was carried on three rows of columns in the basement. The middle row was of timber; the outer rows were of cast iron. The fittings included balustrades of cast iron to the upper gallery and to the pulpit steps. The pulpit was a square structure with panelled sides and recessed Ionic columns at the corners. Demolished.

Monument 31; 'Other Ecclesiastical Architecture', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 5, Central (London, 1981), pp. 50-56.

NMR Information

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060232 SALEM CHAPEL, YORK File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued.

RCHME, 1981, City of York Volume V: The Central Area (Monograph). SYO65.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.