Trinity Church — Gardiner Street Lower

Detached five-bay two-storey Protestant Episcopal Church hall over basement, begun 1838 and opened 1839. Yellow brick entrance block to front (east) elevation having advanced end bays. Rubble limestone central block having five-bay two-storey elevation to side (south) running parallel to Beresford Lane. Later five-bay two-storey addition to rear, built c.1890, to accommodate school. Site modified c.1920, including installation of first floor to original galleried space (to interior) and clerestory lighting to church hall for use as labour exchange. Refurbished in 2000s to accommodate its current use as non-denominational church. Pitched artificial slate roof to central block having recent glazed monitor and squared granite coping to gables. Ashlar limestone parapet wall with moulded cornice to entrance block concealing flat roof with central timber flagpole and flat-roofed timber-framed gallery. Pitched artificial slate roof to addition having squared gable copings and dressed stone eaves course. Single rendered chimneystack with profiled top to east of central block, brown brick chimneystack to addition and later engaged nineteenth-century yellow brick chimneystack for boiler to side (north) elevation of entrance block. Mixed cast-iron and replacement uPVC rainwater goods throughout. Flemish bond yellow brick walls to entrance block, having tooled granite sill course to first floor, and granite plinth. Rubble limestone walls to side elevations and rear addition, having tooled limestone eaves course, dressed limestone quoins and chamfered granite plinth course. Square cast-iron vents beneath all first floor sills to side and rear elevations. Square-headed window openings throughout with exception of round-headed window openings to first floors of side elevations. Tooled granite sills and architrave surrounds to front elevation openings, having moulded entablatures to first floor openings of central bays and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows throughout. Gauged yellow brick voussoirs, block-and-start surrounds and granite sills elsewhere having replacement timber sliding sash windows to addition window openings. Tripartite multiple-pane timber sliding sash windows with fanlights to first floor openings of side elevations and twelve-over-twelve pane to ground floor. Wrought-iron window guards to ground floor window openings of side and rear elevations. Square-headed door opening to central bay of front elevation within pedimented granite doorcase comprising moulded surround, scrolled console brackets and cornice. Painted lettering reading 'The Exchange' to lintel over double-leaf timber panelled doors, and three-pane timber-framed overlight. Square-headed door openings to advanced bays having moulded granite surrounds surmounted by unadorned entablatures with moulded cornices. Double-leaf timber panelled doors opening onto flagged platforms with twin cast-iron bootscrapers and stepped approaches. Square-headed door opening to side (south) elevation within converted window opening, having gauged yellow brick voussoirs, block-and-start surround and timber panelled door surmounted by timber-framed overlight. Basement to central block only, with exposed basement well to north elevation having raised rendered masonry wall with granite capping and recent railings enclosing area. Recent steel stairs give access to boiler room and basement well which is partially concealed below raised concrete platform with three raised concrete bunker hoods, built in 1940s, to provide access to bomb shelter in basement. Recessed square-headed former window openings now blocked with concrete blocks. Attached two-bay three-storey former accommodation block to western end of side (north) elevation, built contemporaneously with church c.1838. Pitched slate roof with corbelled eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods. Ruled-and-lined rendered wall to east elevation and buff brick to west. Diminishing square-headed window openings with rendered reveals, granite sills and timber sliding sash windows, three-over-six pane to second floor and six-over-six pane elsewhere. Square-headed door opening with replacement battened timber door and timber-framed overlight. Located set back from street on hard-standing within enclosed grounds. Heavy cast-iron railings with buttressing rails on projecting plinth blocks enclosing site to front. Side (south) and rear elevations front directly onto Beresford Lane with side (north) elevation fronting onto paved laneway. Internally, church had concrete-framed structure inserted in mid-1920s. Much of this structure now removed from first floor to accommodate church hall area during recent refurbishments. It retains two very simple but elegant stair handrails to both access stairs. Much ventilation ironmongery and mechanical operating levers in-situ, possibly later nineteenth-century additions.