The Square Chapel in

Halifax, West Yorkshire Halifax () is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th cen ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, was designed by Thomas Bradley and James Kershaw at the instigation of Titus Knight, a local preacher. Construction started in 1772 and the chapel was visited by

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...

in July of that year. The Congregationalist chapel was typical of

Nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

design in offering an uninterrupted view of the preacher, having no internal supporting structures. As its name suggests, the chapel has a square base. Atypically for the

Calderdale Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, whose population in 2020 was 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the u ...

region, it was built of red brick rather than local stone. In the 1850s a new chapel, which became the Square Congregational Church, was built on a site to the north, adjoining the chapel; the 1772 building was then used as a

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

. The steeple of the Square Congregational Church survives; the rest of the building was demolished in 1976. The steeple has been incorporated into a library built on the site of the church. Since 1992 the chapel has been used as an arts centre. The steeple and the chapel are

Grade II* listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

References

External links

Square Chapel Centre for the Arts
Theatres in West Yorkshire Arts centres in England Buildings and structures in Halifax, West Yorkshire Former churches in West Yorkshire Grade II* listed buildings in West Yorkshire {{England-church-stub