00:00Canterbury is well known for its religious significance with the cathedral taking centre stage.
00:07But hidden away in Hales Place is a very small Catholic building dating back to 1776.
00:14This was built as a Beldevere and the reason for that is because it is high.
00:18And so at that time if you stood here where I am now and looked straight south east
00:25you could see the top of the cathedral because we're high.
00:29The building was located in the grounds of a mansion and was later turned into a chapel.
00:35After the mansion was demolished in the 1920s the chapel began to deteriorate.
00:40Now the friends of the building have worked with Canterbury City Council to restore it
00:45and they believe it's the smallest chapel in the UK.
00:49I looked online and currently the smallest chapel in the UK is in Wales
00:54and it is 13 feet in diameter and this is 9 feet.
00:59So I am absolutely certain that this is the smallest chapel in the UK.
01:05Amid the excitement about the size of the chapel
01:08residents in Hales Place are also excited about the construction itself.
01:13Before its restoration the chapel here was just another part of Hales Place.
01:18Now the local community are thrilled to see it back open.
01:22When nearly 32 odd years when I moved here from Canada while driving around this little
01:29place I spotted it and I said it's quite a fascinating building.
01:35But going back nearly three decades back you know it was just like a Derek Lake building.
01:40And the local authority also share the view that the chapel will bring the community together.
01:46When you look around today you can see there's selling cake and there's curry over there.
01:52These are all residents who live here I mean they've all come together because of this chapel
01:55and it's just a sort of focal hub of the community.
01:59The Lord Mayor of Canterbury also made an appearance to officially reopen the building.
02:05When you come to Canterbury everybody goes to the major sites
02:08but it's little sites like this, little secrets that residents know.
02:12So it's not massive but it is beautiful and it stands out.
02:17So hopefully people can come and visit, they can go to the Canterbury Cathedral
02:21and as they stop off come to Hales Place Chapel on the way.
02:24The Friends of the Chapel are now fundraising for the interior restoration
02:28and hope to open the inside of the chapel to the public soon.
02:33Justine Larta for KMTV in Canterbury.
Comments