Inspiration of the Week: a sanctuary for nonconformists, in more ways than one

Pull up a pew as we take you on a vicarious tour of Long Bridge Street, a former Methodist church in the town of Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, currently on the market. This striking building – designed in the Italianate gothic style by Robert Owen in 1874 – is remarkable for many reasons, but perhaps most excitingly it’s been granted planning permission to be sensitively reimagined as a home of singular style and character.

The chapel was built for the town’s Wesleyan population, the nonconformist religion having seen a revival in Wales in the preceding century. Though its proportions – and handsome stone façade – are somewhat grand, its interiors are typically simple: in the nave, there’s little to distract from the pulpit, while in the upstairs gallery, a plain palette of plaster and timber feels like a blank canvas of sorts. Yet the spaces themselves are dramatic in spite of their plainness, amply lit by both small pierced windows and taller arched ones, and with astonishingly high ceilings. The bones of this place are very good indeed.

Recognising the chapel’s latent potential, the current owners have thought outside the box, drafting in Rural Office, the Welsh practice celebrated for its ability to reinterpret the architecture of the past for the people of today. There now exists planning permission for the next owners to turn the church into a three-bedroom house, while using the Sunday school rooms as guest annexes.

Importantly, in our view, Rural Office has come up with a design that celebrates the building’s history, while making it fit for purpose. The nave will retain its tall vaulted ceilings, for instance, and while the organ will be removed to make space for a bedroom, the pews will be repurposed as screens and panelling.

Does this splendid reimagining of a place of such prominence and provenance see your heart soaring? Us too. It seems we’re singing from the same hymn sheet.