A modestly-sized church displaying fairly advanced liturgical planning for its date and notable for its dalle de verre glass.

St Joan of Arc was established as an independent parish in 1926 (St Joan was canonised in 1920). A temporary wooden church and parish hall were built, and the present brick presbytery added in 1928. The junior and infants’ schools were built in 1935 and the secondary school in 1938.

The wooden church escaped wartime bombing, although the senior school did not. However  in  November  1958  it  was  gutted  by  fire. The old hall was used as a temporary church while a new parish church and hall were built, from designs by W. Richards, at a cost of £65,000, and completed in 1961.

Description

Buff-coloured brick and monopitch sheet metal roof (originally copper). Gable over reinforced concrete and glazed central main entrance reached from semi-circular flight of shallow steps. An entrance area and narthex leads into a single undivided worship space, wedge-shaped in plan. Cantilevered  choir  gallery  over  entrance. Seating arranged around a forward altar, raised on a dais. The zigzag boarded roof gradually rises in height towards the shallow recessed sanctuary. The side walls of the latter and the nave are primarily glazed, with one inch thick dalle de verre glass. The two chancel windows depict St Joan and Our Lady and were made by Messrs James Powell and Sons (Whitefriars). The cruciform stained glass windows of the nave (set within otherwise clear glazing for reasons of economy) have more abstract representations of the symbols of the Four Evangelists, made by Carl Edwards. The original Italian marble high altar and baldacchino have been removed, along with marble altar rails (except for part surviving at the sides of the dais). The original Italian marble tapered font remains, now located close to the current forward altar.

Heritage Details