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Ebeneser Welsh Independent Chapel (Ebenezer), Inkerman Street, Llanelli

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NPRN12686
Map ReferenceSN50SW
Grid ReferenceSN5069500099
Unitary (Local) AuthorityCarmarthenshire
Old CountyCarmarthenshire
CommunityLlanelli
Type Of SiteCHAPEL
PeriodPost Medieval
Description
Ebenezer Independent Chapel, was built in 1881 by the most prolific designer of chapels in Wales, the Independent Minister Thomas Thomas of Landore. it is recognisably his by the use of a great central recessed arch breaking into the pediment or gable of the main front. This spans one of his usual arched Venetian central windows which sits on a projecting block string-course with uprights supported on stone-corbels; all features of Italian Renaissance origin popularised by Thomas throughout Wales. The classical gable urn capped by a spirelet finial is a distinctively Thomas addition. Typical of Thomas's late work is the variation on Florentine tracery, in the head of the sidelights of the Venetian Window, which produces a teardrop shape and the elongated or stilted upper height of the central light of the window which is Byzantine in origin. This is an economical rendering of Thomas's last main chapel design which often had his later wide central arches flanked by attached classical columns and carrying a wide ashlar entablature, executed in cut Bath Stone, which also circled and emphasised the head of the great arch (a second simple example can be seen at Salem, Llangennech, erected three years before Ebenezer). The seating capacity of Ebenezer was recorded as 800 in 1905, a fairly average size for a chapel in Llanelli or Wales but with a capacity of 20 the Schoolroom provision was the smallest in the town.

Stephen R. Hughes RCAHMW, September 2007
Sources:
Capel Newsletter 34
Capel Local Information Sheet 16 on Llanelli
T. Lloyd, J. Orbach & R. Scourfield, The Buildings of Wales, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion