Accessed from Her Ladyship’s Gardens and featuring a tall, slim and ornate tower, The Chapel was designed by Thomas Fradgley and Joseph Potter and completed by 1833, but the interior was remodelled by A.W.N. Pugin. Pugin completed the reredos and altar screen in 1839-40 and between 1849 and 1851 decorated the ceiling. The Chapel stood empty and in good condition from 1924, but the real destruction of the interior started after the Second World War. The Army requisitioned Alton Towers for use by Cadets, and the owners in 1952 used the Army tenure as a convenient excuse to strip out the complete building of anything of possible saleable value – from the roofing, tiling, to the floorboards and everything in between.
Between 1958 and 1993, the model railway called it home, and when this was removed in 1994 the ceiling was restored. Since then, The Chapel has been open for guests to view intermittently, but with its beautiful features including the stain glass windows, it naturally becomes a target for vandalism as the building is unsupervised. 2025 saw some improvements to lighting made when these photos were taken.
