Heritage Open Days: Maidstone Unitarian Church

About

This is your opportunity to see inside a historic but sometimes overlooked gem, an 18^th century Unitarian meeting house, where William Hazlitt's father was minister. The building features wonderful early 20^th century stained glass and a remarkable timber ceiling.

 

This Grade II Listed Building first opened in 1736 as a meeting house for dissenting Presbyterians who had split from the established church in 1662. The Rev. William Hazlitt, father of William Hazlitt the essayist and critic, was minister between 1770 and 1780. The building is described by John Newman in the West Kent and the Weald volume of The Buildings of England as “perfectly preserved, small and square, of dark red brick, with a pyramidal slate roof”. The interior is light and airy, with some striking features.

 

Overhead is a suspended ceiling (held up by an inverted tree trunk) whose exposed beams create a bold black and white pattern. The original gallery is on three sides, with a Bevington organ to the west, facing the raised pulpit, also original. The square floor plan was extended in 1921 to accommodate richly coloured stained glass windows depicting courage and victory, to honour members of the congregation who were killed in the First World War. The church was decorated in the 1990s in colours in keeping with its date and style.

 

Location tip: We are opposite the colonnade, between Regain Hearing and Royal Star Arcade 

 

Wheelchair access in the form of a ramp into the building is available, but the toilets are not wheelchair accessible owing to the layout of the building.