Contact Artefacts please if you have any comments or more information regarding this record.	Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon		Cordwalles Memorial Chapel Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal Reginald HOSKING: Architect

Date: 1930s Type: Chapel Status: Extant   Click to view map Coordinates: 29°35'40.47" S 30°21'46.62" E Alt: 716m

Cumming-George 1933 THE Cordwalles Memorial Chapel, which is attached to the Cordwalles School, Maritzburg, is a charming design of originality and harmonious proportions. It has an attractive little facade, the central feature of which is the lantern-like termination to the bay that encloses the stairway to the gallery. The tinted facings of the brick walls vary in shades ranging from dark red to purple, similar tints are repeated in the roof of Marseilles tiles. The chapel seats 124 pupils, has a lofty interior with a semi-octagonal shaped apse which is a striking example of what may be accomplished decoratively by the selection and arrangement of richly tinted facing bricks used in conjunction with plaster and stained woodwork. Curtains of blue and gold hang behind the altar which has upon it an engraved cross of brass. The chapel is the gift of parents of a boy who had been a scholar at the school, whose memory they desired to perpetuate. The bronze memorial tablet is very beautiful, depicting two youthful Grecian runners in a relay race; the one about to halt in his stride, handing on the torch to the other. It bears this inscription: "Ad marjorem dei Gloriam. This chapel has been built by the parents of John Christopher of Selborne, Ladysmith, in loving memory of their son, a boy of this school, and in the hope that succeeding generations of boys may in worship here gain inspiration for lives of service and sacrifice. Born May 23, 1918 — died May 28, 1930."