A modern church built to a fan-shaped plan, providing an intimate worship space within a broadly traditional external treatment.

A community of Augustinian priests established a church based around a hall/church and presbytery built during the 1970s (architects R. O’Mahony & Partners). A new church was commissioned with the brief that it should ‘look like a church’ incorporating a ‘prayerful atmosphere’. Pozzoni Design Group was appointed and the building was erected over the course of a year. It was dedicated to St John Stone, an Augustinian executed under Henry VIII, and one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Description

The church is clad in pale brick with stone dressings, tiled roof. Fan-shaped plan with a narthex on the west side. The southeast side of the building extends forward with a projecting gabled roof with bargeboards and timbering which protects a canted window rising from a low stone base.

Inside, the inner entrance from the narthex is framed by large octagonal piers. Exposed roof trusses of timber with tension rods rise from these and subsidiary piers, the trusses are aligned on a north-south axis and frame windows with arched tops. This element of the design provides for good lighting without distracting glare. Furnishings are arranged in a semicircle around the sanctuary. Sanctuary furnishings were designed by the architect on simple lines using cream limestone. The north and south windows have semi-abstract stained glass.

Heritage Details