Lendal Chapel

The Lendal Chapel, also known as 2 Lendal, is a historic building on Lendal, a street in the city centre of York, in England.

The building, in 2021

The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion founded a church in York in 1749. A group split away and founded the Grape Lane Chapel in 1781, then in 1796 part of that group split away and founded a chapel on Jubbergate. Many of the worshippers were Congregationalists, and in 1814 the chapel was taken over by the West Riding Itinerant Society, which aimed to consolidate the faith in the region. The group purchased a site on Lendal, and constructed a new church, completed in 1816. The leading figure in the congregation was the architect James Pigott Pritchett, and he designed the new building, which cost more than £3,000. James Parsons was appointed as the pastor, serving for nearly 50 years. The church thrived, and in 1839 the larger Salem Chapel was built on St Saviour's Place, 368 members including Parsons moving to the new church, and 79 remaining at Lendal. This membership stagnated, and there was a rapid turnover of ministers. The building was restored in 1902, but closed in 1929, with the congregation moving to Salem Chapel and then to the New Lendal Congregational Church on Burton Stone Lane.^[1][2][3] The building was then converted for commercial use, with occupants including shops, a restaurant, and an amusement arcade.^[4]

The red brick building has been grade II listed since 1983. It is two storeys high with a basement, and the front is five bays wide, the central three coming further forward and being topped with a pediment. The ground floor is rendered, and is described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "cruelly spoiled". There is a timber cornice, and a pyramidal slate roof. The windows and doors have round heads, and the central main entrance has a hood. At the rear, there is a semicircular apse projecting from the three central bays.^[4][5]