This building in Shrewsbury High Street is one of the few remaining Unitarian chapels in the couuntry.
Unitarians believe in God, but see Jesus as a moral example rather than a divine being. They were once a very influential sect, particularly important in scientific education, which was generally neglected by the main schools and universities in earlier centuries. Charles Darwin's family were Unitarians, and he would have worshipped here as a boy, as comemmorated by this memorial
Inside, there is no altar; instead a pulpit for preaching takes the central place
On the wall above is the coat of arms of King George I. This is because the building was ransacked and seriously damaged by Jacobite rioters in 1715, and the King, who had only come to the throne in the previous year, ordered the town to rebuilt it at their own expense. One of the brass plates below it records how the poet Coleridge once preached here, and so impressed the congregation that he was offered a permanent salaried position - which, however, he turned down!
