A substantial church planned and partially built in the interwar period but not completed until 1959. Its brick-built Romanesque style was very popular between the wars. The interior has a considerable degree of grandeur and shows the assured hand of T.H. Birchall Scott, one of the most prolific architects working in the archdiocese at the time.

The first phase of the church was planned in 1930 and built in 1931, consisting of the sanctuary, transepts and eastern bay of the nave. The architect was T. H. B. Scott. The rest, giving accommodation for 500 people, was completed from designs by T. G. B. Scott and consecrated in 1959. The presbytery was designed in 1939 (designed by the Scotts, father and son).

The church was reordered in the late 1980s by George Mathers. In 2010 the church was fitted with new stained glass in several of the windows, from designs by the local artist Sophie D’Souza.

Description

The church is built of light brown brick in a simplified Romanesque style, so popular for Catholic churches between the wars. It consists of a nave, transepts, tall, narrow north and south aisles, a sanctuary with a five-sided apsidal projection, (former) western baptistery, and sacristies at the southeast. It is a tall building with high-set windows in the aisles (no clerestory in the nave); flat roofs on the aisles.

The interior is faced with bare stock brick. The nave is of four bays (the eastern two leading into shallow transepts) with tall, broad and plain arches: at the west end a large arch leads into a further bay which contains the gallery. Around the apse of the sanctuary is a screen-like arrangement: free-standing columns with loosely Egyptian capitals stand in front of light grey marble revetting; they carry a classical frieze. The main roof is of tie-beam construction, the beams bearing Birchall Scott’s signature motif of three wicket-like parallel lines.

Parts of the original stone pulpit and the metal altar railings were reused very effectively at the reordering in the altar and ambo.

The church contains a good set of stained glass windows of 2010, designed by Sophie D’Souza, figurative and in bold strong colours; these include three large windows depicting the three persons of the Trinity and smaller roundels, largely on the theme of the lives of St Peter and St Paul.

Heritage Details