Watts Chapel

With today's Wide Wednesday Challenge of Religion in mind, I took myself off to one of my favourite local spots: Watts Cemetery and Chapel.

The chapel is a unique Grade I-listed terracotta building, and is the work of artist and designer Mary Watts, wife of the renown artist G. F. Watts. She employed and trained over 70 people from the local community to help her create it between 1895 and 1904. It was opened in 1898 and remains a working chapel to this day. 


Tiles of red clay decorate the outside influenced by a blend of Celtic, Romanesque, and Art Nouveau styles. However, it is the richly decorated inside of the chapel which takes ones breath away with its experimental wall paintings in incorporating gesso-coated wire for a 3D effect.