Lloyd Street Independent Chapel was built in 1886, in Gothic style, to the design of architect Thomas Arnold of Llanelli. In 1904 the chapel was rebuilt and enlarged to the design of architect David Lewis Jones of Llanelli The chapel was demolished in 1994.

RCAHMW, June 2009

Lloyd Street Independent Chapel, 1887

A rather modest and old-fashioned design built in simple chapel gothic by Thomas Arnold of Llanelli who had in fact designed `full gothic' churches such as Saint David's at Llwynhendy five years previously. For this chapel he used two-storey facades mostly in local Pennant sandstone with little use of fine stone dressings even on the main facade. The main design element of the show-front towards the street is the central recessed `great-arch', a design element pioneered in the chapels of the Independent denomination by Thomas Thomas and John Humphrey as seen at Ebenezer and Capel-y-Doc. All the many first-floor windows are single lancet arches with simple `Y' tracery and the ground-floor openings are rather domestic-looking shallow-arched openings. The most elaborate ornamentation in what is otherwise an economically-built structure are the cut-stone flanking turrets with recessed panels headed by gothic trefoiled arches and capped by the miniature spires beloved of nonconformist architects.

A rich interior glowing with the warmth of pine woodwork enhanced by the contrast of shining white-painted cast-iron panels and gallery-support columns that would have been cast in one of the local town foundries. As in most gothic chapels there is a slight gabled ceiling but the central flat areas allow the use of elaborate ceiling-roses as decoration. The seating capacity of 750 (with 250 children in the adjoining schoolroom) was fairly average for both Llanelli and Wales.

Stephen R. Hughes, RCAHMW, 06.09.2007