A late and modest design by F. R. Bates, Son & Price, replacing an earlier church-hall by the same firm of architects.

Llanrumney was open farmland until after the Second World War, when Cardiff Corporation began building a housing estate. A Catholic parish was erected in 1956 and a church/hall opened early in 1957. It was a steel-framed building by F. R. Bates, Son and Price, similar to their church of Our Lady at Gabalfa (qv), which was opened in the same year. A presbytery by the same architects was added in 1959. The present church, also by F. R. Bates, Son & Price, was built at right angles to the old church/hall and was opened by Archbishop Ward of Cardiff in May 1988. The main contractors were Noel T. James of Newport.

Description

The church is not orientated: the liturgical east end faces towards the west. All directions in this description are liturgical unless otherwise stated. The 1985 church has a steel frame and a simple modern exterior faced with buff-coloured brick laid in stretcher bond with a wide overall shallow-pitched pantiled roof. The body of the building is rectangular, with one long west front to the road under a wide gable, a porch and narthex to one side ending in a monopitch roof. The long east wall is canted out to a central apex. The west wall has a large full-height central window flanked by smaller hexagonal windows. To the left, the narthex building has three vertical slit windows and a wide entrance door. The exposed south side wall has three small hexagonal windows set in diamond surrounds. The east wall has five stepped slit windows each side of the centre.

Inside, the steel frame is exposed and the walls faced with grey brick. The floor is covered with carpet. The bench seating is aligned on the long north/south axis, facing the sanctuary in the pointed east side. A large window in the centre of the west wall has blue stained glass framing an alcove with a carved wooden figure of Our Lord. The ten strip windows in the east wall are clear glazed, with the random leading pattern typical of Bates & Price’s buildings. In the northwest corner of the church, next to the main entrance, is a small Lady Chapel.

Heritage Details