Tabernacl Welsh Baptist Chapel was built in 1861 as an off-shoot of Bethel Baptist Chapel on Pentre Poeth (NPRN 97133).
The chapel caused a considerable amount of interest and comment during its construction. One newspaper reported that “this chapel with its beautiful little spire is drawing fast towards completion, and will constitute quite an ornament to the town, and the spire (100 feet in height) can be seen to a great distance to seaward. The spire is capped with a stone globe, and during the week several adventurous townsmen have signalized their hardihood by standing on the top of it on one foot - amongst them being Mr. Evan Jones, Bran-dy Bach, who is 67 years of age. Of course this feat was performed with the assistance of the scaffolding”. (1) While a ‘Perambulator’ visiting the town in June 1861 was moved to send a letter to the newspaper stating his surprise in the Nonconformists constructing a chapel with “one of the neatest little spires, about half-built, which I ever saw in my Life, in either England or Wales”, reflecting on both the novelty of the “architectural gem” and the “good taste of the Pwllheli Baptists” and asking whether dissenters were as equally aspiring elsewhere. (2)
The chapel opened on the 22nd and 23rd October 1861, described as “one of the most chaste and beautiful [buildings], which is to be found, not only in Pwllheli, but in any other district in this part of Wales. It is situate in about the centre of Penlan Street; and as there is a tall, octagonal spire (100 feet high), attached to it, it forms a very conspicuous object for many miles around. The building was commenced some 18 months ago; and the cost, we are informed, has amounted to £2,500. The extreme length of the chapel itself is 63 feet, its breadth 37 feet, and it is calculated to hold 400 persons. There are two vestries; and also the spacious school-room underneath. There are two principal entrances in front-the chief one being under the basement of the spire. Outside it presents a most systematical and highly chaste and ornamental appearance; but the inside is plain, but spacious and commodious, with three distinct ranges of comfortably constructed seats. The architect was Mr. Lloyd, of Carnarvon; the contractors being Messrs. John Roberts, Owen Jones and Co Pwllheli, and the highest credit is due to all parties concerned in the construction of this beautiful chapel, which is quite an ornament to the town. The opening was commenced on Wednesday evening last, and as the services of the world-renowned Rev. Stowell Brown, of Liverpool, had been engaged, the chapel was crowded almost to suffocation, so much so that numbers were unable to get into the chapel even by employing the utmost physical force.” (3)
Tabernacl was registered for marriages in 1866. (4) In 1896 the chapel underwent 'repairs and improvements', including the installing of a new organ. (5)
The chapel is built of snecked rubble masonry from the Carreg yr Imbill (Gimblet Rock) Quarry with Penmon limestone dressings. (6) It is constructed in the Gothic style, the gabled facade to Penlan Street dominated by a large, centrally placed, Decorated Gothic traceried window of five lights with a large petal-pattern oculus. This is flanked to either side by smaller, two-light windows with stone Y-tracery, while below is a 5-light triangular window with a quatrefoil oculus lighting the basement schoolroom. A stepped cill band runs across the centre of the elevation, while to the apex of the gable is a small quatrefoil attic vent. The corners of the gable facade are marked by stepped buttresses, and the gable is topped by a small finial. To the left, the main entrance is via steps up into a square-based tower with stepped buttresses at the corners, which rises into the octagonal tower which is decorated with blind 2-light Gothic windows and topped by a weather-vane. To the right a second set of steps leads to a further doorway, over which is a small spirelet. A small slate plaque with the inscription ‘TABERNACL ADDOLDY BEDYDDWYR – GWEINIDOG – PREGETHWR SUL NESAF’, previously standing on the space to the front of the chapel, is now attached to the brick wall of the adjoining building.
The Cadw listing description from July 1989 describes that the pews (now removed) were slightly raked and decorated with tall finials, and that the sedd fawr was surrounded by gothic balustrading with lamp standards. (7) The end gallery remains in place, supported on two cast iron columns with foliate capitals, and with an open, cast-iron, gallery front of quatrefoils and cusped uprights. While the sedd fawr and pulpit have since also been removed, the large pulpit arch remains with painted inscriptions of ‘IDDO EF YR HWN AN CARODD NI’ and ‘DUW CARIAD YW’. The ceiling is coved and bracketed, the central flat panels of match-boarded timber. The largest, central panel has an ornate plaster ceiling rose from which radiate pierced timber ventilation runs, while the two smaller ceiling panels to either end have smaller ceiling roses.
The Cadw listing description also states that the spire was constructed by a Dublin mason, Michael King, though no reference is given for this and no inclusion of his name is given in contemporary newspaper accounts.
The Royal Commision on the Church of England and Other Religious Buildings of Wales and Monmouthshire of 1905 reports the seating as 420 and the membership as 166, with a further 94 adherents and 173 scholars.
A visit by the Royal Commission in the 1950s recorded the chapel as disused, but by 1998 it was recorded as in use as a chapel. The chapel finally closed in 2006 and is now (2025) in use as commercial premises.
RCAHMW May 2025