A modest church dating originally from the late 1930s, significantly altered and enlarged in the 1960s, with an attractive reordering of 2000.

In 1938 a mission was founded in Perry Barr from Sacred Heart parish in Aston to serve the new housing estates then building. The mission operated from a pair of houses in Wellington Road, now the presbytery. A simple church was built on adjacent land, opened in 1940 and later war-damaged. The mission was made a separate parish in 1947. A hall was built in the 1950s and the church extended in 1962 to designs by Morris, Smith & Partners. The same architects reordered the sanctuary in 1969, when the church was consecrated. The church was further reordered and refurbished in 2000 by Daniel Hurd Associates.

Description

The development history of the building is not clear from the structure. It seems likely that the original 1939 building was a simple shed-like structure and that what is now visible dates mostly from 1962. The plan comprises a nave with side extensions rather than aisles. The external walls are of red brick; the shallow-pitched roof is covered in felt. The gabled west end fronting the road is clad with artificial stone and has a full-height glazed centre. The other exteriors are completely enclosed.

The interior has a wide nave which has been extended on either side to create wide aisles. The uprights of the main building frame have been retained as piloti and the roof trusses they support have been boxed in. The pitched nave ceiling is boarded, the aisle ceilings are flat. The aisles have rectangular timber windows of standard design but most of the light comes from the large west window. The sanctuary arch has thirty-one individually carved timber panels depicting Biblical scenes, from the 2000 refurbishment. The sanctuary fittings in Travertine and Carrara marble date from the 1969 refurbishment.

Heritage Details