The Art Shop on Cross Street The Chapel on Market Street Two minutes apart
Shop · 01873 852690 Chapel · 01873 736430
The Art Shop & Chapel Abergavenny · since 1990 Plan a visit
Abergavenny · The Art Shop on Cross Street · The Chapel on Market Street

A shop and a chapel,
two minutes apart, in Abergavenny.

The Art Shop has been on Cross Street since 1990. Pauline Eynon Griffiths runs it from a 16th-century townhouse at No. 8: a fine and applied art gallery upstairs in sage-painted rooms, a working materials counter downstairs. In 2015 Pauline reopened the Bethany Baptist Chapel of 1882 on Market Street, two minutes round the back of the Market Hall, as the second half of the venue: a permanent showcase, an upper-floor events space, a kitchen under the trusses, and a walled garden by the Chelsea Gold designer Sarah Price.

Plan a visit Buy a painting on Own Art
Since 1990On Cross Street, Abergavenny
1882The Bethany Baptist Chapel
Sarah PriceWalled garden by the Chelsea Gold designer
Own ArtInterest-free, £250 to £5,000 over 10 months
The Art Shop and Chapel chalkboard hero, hand-drawn in white on black. Left panel: THE ART SHOP, with a sun, a crescent moon, a chapel with a bell tower, a vase of foliage, books, and small banners reading FOOD, GARDEN, ART AND BOOKS. Right panel: Chapel in tall florid lettering, with a horned figure carrying a trident, festoon bunting, a banner reading DANCING DRINKS MUSIC, and the legend HIJINKS AND HALLELUJAH along the bottom.
In our own hand Our chalkboard hero, in the window on Cross Street.
What visitors say
“such a special venue” Annette Marie Townsend, artist, 2019
“outstanding food” Tripadvisor
“always brilliant vegan options” HappyCow, Feb 2024
“thoughtfully displayed amongst household objects” Annette Marie Townsend

4.3 stars from 192 Tripadvisor reviews · Selvedge Magazine Best of Britain, permanent listing

Four parts of one venue

The shop, the chapel, the kitchen, the garden.

Plan a visit →

Two physical buildings, two minutes' walk between them. The Art Shop at 8 Cross Street is the gallery and materials counter. The Chapel on Market Street is the second showcase, the upper-floor events space, the kitchen, and the walled garden.

ART SHOP · UPSTAIRS GALLERY

Fine and applied art, in a domestic interior

Sage-painted walls, pink linen blinds, paintings hung amongst the furniture.

The first floor at 8 Cross Street is not a white cube. The walls are sage green, the sash window has a soft pink linen blind half-down, a moss-velvet tub chair sits in the corner. Solo and group shows from The Old Stile Press, the 56 Group Wales, Eleri Mills, Kate Shooter, George Rowlett. George Rowlett's solo “Gallery in a Restaurant” runs to 30 May 2026; the Mixed Summer Show follows 30 May to 25 July 2026. We participate in Own Art: a first-time buyer can take home a £2,500 painting on a 10-month interest-free plan.

Tue to Sat · 9:30 to 5
ART SHOP · DOWNSTAIRS MATERIALS

Proper materials, curated by working artists

Faber-Castell, Lyra, fine papers by the sheet, books, magazines.

The ground floor at 8 Cross Street is the materials counter, with the chalked legend “Materials for the creative child” on the children's window. Stock is chosen by working artists, not ordered from a wholesaler. Brands on the shelf include Faber-Castell, Lyra, and Color Gel; we sell fine paper by the sheet rather than the pad, and independent art books and magazines you would not otherwise find in Monmouthshire. Our sister materials shop runs at artshopmaterials.co.uk for orders that cannot be collected.

Walk in or commission
CHAPEL · GALLERY AND VENUE

The 1882 Bethany Baptist Chapel, reopened 2015

Timber floorboards, cast-iron columns, gothic arched windows.

The chapel was designed by Abergavenny architect E. A. Johnson and built by J. G. Thomas in 1882 for £1,240. Pauline bought the disused building and restored it; we reopened on 30 April 2015. Downstairs is a permanent showcase of jewellery, textiles and ceramics from Kaz Robertson, Sarah Packington, James and Tilla Waters and others. Upstairs is event hire: life drawing every Tuesday (£12), wallpaper-printing masterclasses, gong baths, basket willow weaving, and our “Conversations at the Chapel” interview series.

Tue to Sat · 10 to 4
KITCHEN & GARDEN

Kitchen at the Chapel, and the walled garden

Local breakfast and lunch under the rafters; Sarah Price designed the garden.

A small kitchen serving locally sourced food Tuesday to Saturday. Breakfast 10 to 11:45, lunch 12:15 to 2:45. Chapel pancakes with maple syrup £10. Two poached eggs on Angel Bakery sourdough. Za'atar fried eggs. Barista coffee, biodynamic wines, local craft cider and ale, homemade fruit cordials. The walled garden was designed and planted by Sarah Price, the two-time RHS Chelsea Gold winner who designed the Hampton Court 2025 main avenue.

Tue to Sat · bookings via events@
The story

From a 16th-century townhouse on Cross Street,
to a 19th-century Baptist chapel two minutes away.

The Art Shop has been on Cross Street since at least 1990. The 56 Group Wales archive catalogues exhibitions from 1990 onward. The Old Stile Press wrote in July 2008 of “a beautiful building, of considerable antiquity, a rare characterful shop front and deliciously low ceilings and wiggly staircases,” with Pauline Griffiths as proprietor, having already “further enhanced the place with subtle wall paintings in green tones.”

Round the back of the Market Hall, the Bethany Baptist Chapel of 1882 had been disused for around fifteen years. Designed by the local architect E. A. Johnson and built by J. G. Thomas for £1,240, it was sold on 23 April 2008 after a stint as a Museum of Childhood. Pauline bought it, restored it over the following years, and reopened it on 30 April 2015 as the Chapel half of The Art Shop and Chapel. Sarah Price (two-time RHS Chelsea Gold) designed and planted the walled garden at the same time.

The succession runs through the family. Pauline incorporated THE ART SHOP ABERGAVENNY LIMITED in 2011. Emma Davies joined the board on 3 August 2020. Pauline's son William James Caradog Griffiths, who runs the House of Caradog hospitality group with his wife Charlotte (The Walnut Tree, The Angel Hotel, Caradog Cottages, the Angel Bakery, the Foxhunter), joined as a director on 8 November 2023. Pauline remains the founder name on the door.

“It is such a special venue, with artworks thoughtfully displayed amongst household objects in a domestic interior setting.” Annette Marie Townsend, 2019
Scenes from inside both buildings

The sage gallery, the chapel bar, the walled garden.

Walk in, Tue to Sat →
Upstairs at The Art Shop on Cross Street. Sage-green panelled walls with two framed Eleri Mills landscape paintings either side of a tall sash window, a soft pink linen blind half-down. A glass-topped trestle table in the middle of the room holds art books. A moss-green velvet tub chair sits in the corner. Dark-stained timber floor, glazed corner display cupboard.
Upstairs gallery, Cross Street Sage-painted walls · Eleri Mills paintings · pink linen blind
Downstairs at The Chapel on Market Street after restoration. Original timber floorboards, a slim Victorian cast-iron column dividing the room, a long communal oak table with country chairs and a bench, a blackboard reading CHAPEL BAR with white-line floral decoration, an antique silver punch bowl of citrus fruit, a hanging twig-and-bare-bulb light fitting along the length of the room, a wide informal flower painting filling the far wall above the bar.
The Chapel, downstairs Timber floor · cast-iron column · the long oak table
The walled courtyard garden at the Chapel, designed by Sarah Price. A brick path runs under the low canopy of a multi-stem amelanchier tree. Creamy umbellifers in cottage drifts against a dark red brick boundary wall. Rustic timber tables and chairs glimpsed under the canopy with cushions in faded pink. Late spring light.
The walled garden, by Sarah Price Amelanchier · cottage umbellifers · brick boundary
On the walls, on the stage

Programme through July 2026.

Email events@ →

Life drawing every Tuesday, 6 to 8pm, year-round, £12. Conversations at the Chapel interview evenings ticket separately and sit outside daytime hours.

Three things most galleries do not tell you

Own Art, a Sarah Price garden, and a hand-drawn map by Eleri Mills.

  • Own Art, interest-free. We are a participating Own Art gallery under the national scheme run by Creative United. A first-time buyer can take home a £2,500 painting on a 10-month interest-free loan. Loans run from £250 to £5,000. Ask at the Cross Street counter.
  • The walled garden, by Sarah Price. The Chapel's secluded walled garden was designed and planted by Sarah Price, two-time RHS Chelsea Gold medallist, who designed the Mount St Mary's garden and the Hampton Court 2025 main avenue. Not commissioned to a local landscaper.
  • Materials a working artist would actually buy. The downstairs counter is curated by working artists. Faber-Castell, Lyra and Color Gel on the shelves. Fine paper by the sheet, not the pad. Independent art books and magazines you would not otherwise find in Monmouthshire.

“Fine and applied arts in a domestic interior setting.” Our own line, on the gallery, lifted from the door.

A hand-drawn map by Eleri Mills

Two minutes from one door to the other.

The map we hand out at the door, drawn by the painter Eleri Mills. The Bethany Chapel facade with its three tall arched windows on the left. A route down Market Street, around Market Hall, up to No. 8 on Cross Street on the right. Just two minutes' walk between the two venues, the easiest way to grasp the relationship.

On a busy market day, leave the car at the Brewery Yard car park, come in through the Market Hall, the Chapel is the first door past the Borough Theatre.

A hand-drawn wayfinding map by Eleri Mills, split into two halves. Left: a careful line drawing of the Bethany Chapel facade with its three tall arched windows and pediment-topped roof, the words the art shop and chapel handwritten next to a tiny car carrying a P, and a hand-drawn route down Market Street round Market Hall to Cross Street No 8. Beneath the route, the words Just 2 minutes walk. Right: a real photograph of the Art Shop on Cross Street, a brown shopfront with the gilt ART SHOP lettering on a chocolate-brown fascia, double doors open, framed Eleri Mills paintings on display in the window, and a chalkboard with handwritten exhibition text on the door.
The wayfinding map, by Eleri Mills. Chapel on the left, Cross Street shop on the right.
Enquire

Venue hire, a kitchen booking, a framing job.

Tell us what you need below. Event hire and kitchen bookings route to events@artshopandchapel.co.uk on Market Street. General gallery and framing questions route to admin@artshopandchapel.co.uk on Cross Street. We come back to enquiries inside two working days.

For Conversations at the Chapel ticketing, the events page is the fastest route. For larger evening hire (after-hours dinners, private screenings, recitals), email events@ with a date and rough headcount and we will reply with availability.

Or email admin@ or events@ directly · we reply within two working days
Visit

Two venues, two postcodes, two minutes apart.

See the Eleri Mills map →
The Art Shop

8 Cross Street, Abergavenny
Monmouthshire NP7 5EH

01873 852690

Mon Closed
Tue 9:30 to 5:00
Wed 9:30 to 5:00
Thu 9:30 to 5:00
Fri 9:30 to 5:00
Sat 9:30 to 5:00
Sun Closed

The shopfront with the gilt ART SHOP lettering on a chocolate-brown fascia. The children's materials window is the giveaway: chalk on black, “Materials for the creative child.”

The Chapel

Market Street, Abergavenny
Monmouthshire NP7 5NT

01873 736430

Mon Closed
Tue 10:00 to 4:00Breakfast 10 to 11:45 · Lunch 12:15 to 2:45
Wed 10:00 to 4:00
Thu 10:00 to 4:00
Fri 10:00 to 4:00
Sat 10:00 to 4:00Life drawing Tuesday 6 to 8pm year-round
Sun Closed

Round the back of the Market Hall, opposite the Borough Theatre. Look for the three tall arched windows and the pediment-topped roof; the entrance is the painted blue door.

8 Cross Street, Abergavenny NP7 5EH. The Art Shop, on the main retail spine, opposite the King's Head. Open in Maps ↗
Market Street, Abergavenny NP7 5NT. The Chapel, opposite the Borough Theatre, round the back of the Market Hall. Open in Maps ↗
Frequently asked

Five questions visitors ask at the counter.

Are the Art Shop and the Chapel the same place?

No, two separate venues two minutes apart on different streets, both run by The Art Shop and Chapel. The Art Shop is the original Cross Street gallery and materials shop at No. 8. The Chapel is the 1882 Bethany Baptist building on Market Street with the gallery downstairs, the kitchen, the walled garden, and the events space upstairs. The hand-drawn map by Eleri Mills (in the Visit section) is the simplest way to grasp the relationship.

Do you stock proper artists' materials, or is it gift-shop pencils?

Proper materials. The downstairs at 8 Cross Street is a working art-materials counter curated by working artists. Faber-Castell pencils, Lyra leads, fine paper by the sheet rather than the pad, independent art books and magazines. There is also a sister online shop at artshopmaterials.co.uk for orders that cannot be collected in person.

Can I buy a painting on a loan?

Yes. We are a participating Own Art gallery. Loans run from £250 to £5,000 over 10 months, interest-free, administered nationally by Creative United. Ask at the counter on Cross Street.

Is the Chapel Kitchen mostly vegetarian?

Mostly, not exclusively. The menu is innovative, seasonal dishes for the vegan, vegetarian and meat eater. Gluten-free and dairy-free cakes and desserts are made daily. Reviewers single out the “always brilliant vegan options” (HappyCow, February 2024).

Can I hire the upper Chapel for an event?

Yes. The upper chapel hosts talks, concerts, workshops and performances. Examples currently on the events page: wallpaper-printing masterclasses, inkwash workshops, gong baths, basket willow weaving and the Conversations at the Chapel interview series. Bookings via events@artshopandchapel.co.uk or 01873 736430.