Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The former site of the Zion Chapel and later, Mission and Baptist chapel is located here on historic maps dating to the later 19th and early 20th century. During an archaeological watching brief undertaken in association with the works for the A20 road and sewer scheme on the south side of Queen Street, features were uncovered that include traces of a Zion Chapel (post-medieval), with associated 19th century graves. (location accurate to the nearest 10m based on available information).

Monument Types

• CHAPEL (Post Medieval - 1540 AD? to 1900 AD?) + Sci.Date
• GRAVE (Post Medieval - 1800 AD? to 1899 AD?)

Full description

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The Zion Chapel, on the corner of Queen Street and Last Lane, was the first Dissenters' chapel to be built in Dover, being erected in 1703. It was re-built in 1814. After the amalgamation of 1900, it remained as a Mission Chapel until being sold to the Baptists from the Pentside Chapel in May 1902.
A few years later it was sold again, and became the Queen's Hall Electric Picture Theatre (cinema). It was later sold to Mr Took, who used it for many years as a leather works, before finally becoming an amusement arcade. The chapel was demolished in October 1974 to make way for a £5m "piazza" development. (1-6)

The A20 project consisted of a major archaeological watching brief and excavation programme, conducted across an extensive part of the maritime and water-front areas of this important historic town. This was ahead of major road construction and sewer trenching, between the summer of 1991 and the spring of 1993. There were 21 areas of archaeological investigation: the 17th was the south side of Queen Street. A watching brief and salvage recording was undertaken during road re-aligning and service trenching. The features uncovered include traces of Zion Chapel (post-medieval) which stood on this site until the 1970’s, 19th century graves including the top of a single brick-lined vault which was recorded in the new road bed (contents were not excavated), traces of post-medieval buildings and deposits and traces of Medieval stone buildings and soil deposits.(7)

<1> C. E. Goad, 1905, Kent Fire insurance plans sheets 1-7 (Map). SKE51666.

<2> Kent History Forum (Digital archive). SWX15715.

<3> Landmark, Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 map (OS 1st edition 1862-1875): Landmark Epoch 1 (Map). SKE30964.

<4> Landmark, Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 map (OS 2nd Edition, 1897-1900): Landmark Epoch 2 (Map). SKE30965.

<5> Landmark, 1907-1923, Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 map (OS 3rd Edition, 1907-1923): Landmark Epoch 3 (Map). SKE30966.

<6> Landmark, Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 map (OS 4th Edition, 1929-1952): Landmark Epoch 4 (Map). SKE30967.

<7> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2001, Dover Sewers/A20 Project 1991–3, Assessment Report and Updated Project Design (Unpublished document). SKE31815.

Sources and further reading

Related records