A fairly late work by the firm of F. R. Bates, Son & Price, who designed a large number of Catholic churches in South Wales. The church was built to serve a new housing estate. It has a plain brick exterior and a thoughtfully arranged interior, top-lit and with curved benches arranged in a half-circle around the sanctuary.

Llanedeyrn (about four miles northeast of Cardiff city centre) was developed in the 1970s and 1980s with a mixture of social and privately-owned housing grouped round the Maelfa Shopping Centre. The foundation stone of a new Catholic church was blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1982 during his visit to Cardiff, and was laid by Archbishop Ward of Cardiff in May 1985. The church and its attached presbytery were designed by the firm of F. R, Bates, Son & Price of Newport, and the church was solemnly dedicated by the archbishop on 25 October 1985. It was dedicated to St Philip Evans, a Jesuit missionary martyred near Cardiff in 1679 and canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970. A large hall was built next to the church in 2000.

Description

The church is in a simple modern style. The external walls are of buff-coloured brick laid in stretcher bond, the pitched roofs are covered in pantiles. The main church building is square on plan with a pyramidal roof rising to a rectangular skylight. Along the west side is a lower single-storey range containing a narthex and sacristies and providing a link to the presbytery. The exposed walls of the main church have single full-height slit windows. The lower building has paired windows, with small square openings in the wall of the church above.

The main interior is a single undivided space, the walls faced with grey brick. A boarded ceiling slopes up to a large central skylight. The side windows are all clear glazed with the random leading patterns typical of churches by Bates & Price. Curved benches are arranged in a half-circle round the sanctuary dais, with a central alley. The tabernacle is placed centrally against the east wall, with a crucifix above it. The steps to the tabernacle are behind a ‘retaining wall’, in front of which is placed the presidential chair and seating for acolytes. The original forward altar of inverted canted form is in front of this.

Heritage Details