Former rail workers’ chapel, Tenby

Former rail workers’ chapel, Lower Frog Street, Tenby

This building, now The Upper Room place of worship and coffee shop, was once a chapel for rail workers, especially, to gather for Christian worship.

One of the moving forces behind the Pembroke & Tenby Railway was the industrialist David Davies of Llandinam, Powys. He was brought up in a Calvinistic Methodist family and used his wealth to promote the cause. His partner in the P&TR was of the same denomination – Ezra Roberts of St Asaph, Denbighshire.

Tenby railway station opened in 1863. Methodist chapel services for the rail workers were provided in the town’s Assembly Room until Sir John Phillips bought this building, previously a Congregational Chapel, for the Calvinistic Methodists in 1869.

Photo of roof of old chapel, TenbyThe building was erected in 1821-1822 and updated after 1869 by the Calvinistic Methodists. The façade we see today dates from 1884. In 1892 the adjacent house was purchased to provide a manse (home for the chapel minister), and a schoolroom was added at the rear.

The chapel had closed and fallen into disrepair before it was converted into a children’s soft-play centre. The conversion work preserved many key features, including the gallery and open-timber roof (pictured) which were installed by E Glover Thomas of Tenby in 1894.

It's rare for a closed place of worship converted for secular use to go back to being a place of worship, but in 2020 the first floor of this building became The Upper Room, for non-denominational evangelical Christians to worship together. The ground floor became a coffee shop and Christian bookshop.

With thanks to Capel, the Chapels Heritage Society

Postcode: SA70 7HU    View Location Map

Website of The Upper Room

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