Canterbury's nine-foot Grade II chapel on Tenterden Drive drew 183 visitors on 20 September as a new Friends group launched to restore its interior.

A tiny Georgian chapel in St Stephen’s opened its door to 183 visitors on Sunday 20 September. It was the launch of a new Friends group that wants to restore it.

Hales Place Chapel, on Tenterden Drive, is about nine feet across. It is the last building left of the Hales Place mansion, which was blown up for salvage in 1928. The new Friends of Hales Place Chapel hope to register it as the smallest chapel in the United Kingdom.

The group’s chair, Pauline Walters, wrote on its restoration page that the day “was a real success with 183 guests”. She credited the volunteers who stewarded, served teas and cleared up.

What the chapel is

Historic England lists the building at Grade II, list entry 1273523, first listed on 18 August 1976. The listing describes:

  • a roughly circular building about 9 feet in diameter, with a porch
  • walls of flint and red brick, bonded with stone and blocks of animal knucklebones
  • a cross made of animal bones over the round-headed arch
  • a slate roof with a lantern
  • blue plaster walls with gold decoration inside, and a marble altar dated 1875
  • a funeral brass to Sir Edward Hales, 5th Baronet, who died in 1802, shown in medieval costume

The listing calls it probably a late 18th or early 19th century garden building, later adapted around 1884 as the mortuary chapel of the Jesuit college of St Mary. It says the building “has curiosity value”.

How it survived

The Friends’ timeline and history page set out its story. The 1776 survey of Kent by Charles Seymour described it as “a belvedere”, a lookout over the city and the Cathedral. That date makes 2026 its 250th year on the record.

Year What happened
1776 Recorded as a belvedere (and elsewhere as a dovecote) in the Hales Place grounds
1850s Converted by Mary Barbara Felicity Hales into “la petite Chapelle Rustique”
1880 Estate sold to French Jesuits, who opened St Mary’s College
1884 First burial in the Jesuit cemetery beside the chapel
1928 Mansion sold for demolition; the chapel passes to St Thomas’ Church
1984 Chapel becomes Canterbury City Council’s property and is restored
1990s The first Friends group disbands and the site declines
2025 Council designates it a community asset after a residents’ application
2026 Council grant weatherproofs the lantern; new Friends group formed

The remains of Sir Edward Hales, the Dowager Lady Hales and Mary Barbara Felicity Hales were moved to the chapel when the estate was sold. They are still buried there, which is why the tree stumps around it cannot be dug out.

What happens next

The council’s work began earlier in the year. A public meeting on 8 May, listed by the Canterbury Society, said the council had funded repairs to the roof lantern and structural assessments. The Friends say the council “have stepped in to undertake work on the outside and grounds, but the interior needs a full restoration”. Their plan has four parts:

  • a full interior survey, listing the work needed and its cost
  • fundraising to pay for it
  • a phased programme of works to restore the chapel
  • an interactive plaque and website telling the stories of those buried in its grounds

A meeting with the council’s landscape team on 1 September agreed the grounds would be strimmed at least three times a year. It also found a badger sett, and an old path that could one day be cleared and gravelled from the gate to the chapel.

The group has not published a fundraising target. It says the damp in the walls and the interior still need work before the chapel is safe from changes in the weather.

Hales Place Chapel behind its railings on the Heritage Open Day, with a pink Heritage Open Days banner and bunting on the fence and visitors at the chapel door
The chapel on the Heritage Open Day, 20 September 2026. Photo: supplied by the Friends of Hales Place Chapel

What it means for you

  • Want to see inside? The chapel is not open every day. Watch the Friends’ website for the next open day.
  • Want to help? Membership is £10 a year. Email info@halesplacechapel.org for a form, according to the group’s home page. Members get progress updates and invitations to events.
  • Meetings are open. The last one was on Tuesday 1 September at St Stephen’s Community Centre, Tenterden Drive, and the group says “all interested persons are welcome”. Dates are on its meetings page.

More of this month’s Canterbury heritage news: five new blue plaques have been granted consent.

Sources