Description

TORQUAY

SX9163 MONTPELLIER ROAD
885-1/18/190 (North side)
Unity Church

GV II

Unitarian church. 1912 to the designs of Bridgman and
Bridgman. Snecked local grey limestone with freestone
dressings; slate roofs.
PLAN: Built in two sections with an entrance to the southern
section below a tower with belfry. Passageway entrance with
chapel to right (south). Northern section entered from an
adjacent entrance. Free Gothic style.
EXTERIOR: Single storey with 2-stage tower. 3:4:1-window
front. Southern block (to the right) buttressed with
segmental-headed 3-light windows with trefoil-headed lights.
Segmental-headed doorway to lower stage of tower with recessed
2-leaf boarded door with ornamental strap hinges. Doorway
flanked by buttresses which extend up the tower and terminate
in freestone pinnacles.
Tower has an openwork parapet; central pilaster strip and 2
segmental-headed louvred belfry openings.
The left-hand block is similar to the right-hand block with
similar buttresses and 3-light windows with cusped lights and
square heads. Gabled porch block to right with a coped gable
with kneelers. Moulded doorway with Tudor-arched head and a
2-leaf boarded door with strap hinges below a fanlight.
INTERIOR: 4 collar rafter roof trusses. N end has preacher's
gallery fronted with shafts in an Early English style.
Described in Pevsner as a "diminutive limestone cathedral for
liberal Christianity"
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London:
1952-1989: P.852).

Listing NGR: SX9199063600

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26580226

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)