A modern church and hall on a raised site. One of a series of churches in the diocese by John Rochford, who experimented with a variety of interesting roof forms. The interior is welcoming and attractive; the exterior rather more forbidding, and let down by some poor materials and finishes.

In about 1955 a timber church was built on the present site on the corner of High Street and Clumber Street. An adjacent brick house was also acquired to serve as the presbytery. The temporary church was replaced in 1973 by the present church and parish hall, built at a cost of approximately £37,000 from designs by John Rochford. The church was built to seat about 250.

Description

The church is located on a raised, sloping site, allowing for the parish hall to be located beneath it. There is level access to the church from the car park at the Clumber Street entrance, as well as stepped pedestrian access from High Street. The church is roughly square on plan, with ancillary spaces giving off the main worship area. It is of steel framed construction, externally clad in buff-coloured brick laid in stretcher bond. There is a raised felt-clad lantern roof rising up to a copper-clad fleche, and clerestorey windows in the sides.  The side appendages are flat roofed.

The internal worship space is a single volume with a varnished pine boarded ceiling following the lines of the roof, which appears to hover lightly over the main space and clerestory lights. The walls are plastered. There is a projecting screen wall at the back of the sanctuary, faced in white tiles of geometrical pattern. The altar and tabernacle stand are of matching blue-grey marble. In the southeast corner there is a baptistery with sunken floor, side-lit by tall slender windows and with an octagonal font, also of blue-grey marble. The seating consists of plain benches.

Heritage Details