A prefabricated church of the 1950s, much altered and extended.

In 1937 Mrs Beach and Mrs Light of 15 Bransbury Road offered a garage and land at the side of their house as a site for a church. Initially, the garage was converted (by the builder Marchetti of Portsmouth), and blessed by Bishop Cotter on Sunday 14 November 1937. Plans for a permanent church were in hand, and £3,500 had been raised when war broke out. In 1947 the diocese acquired the site of the house at no.15. A new church was built by Marchetti, and opened by Archbishop King on 11 February 1956. Originally served from St Swithun’s, the parish was created in 1964.

The church was reordered in 1968. A porch addition with three rooms and a community hall were built in 1983-4.

Description

The church is a prefabricated framed structure with rendered masonry external walls. Worship area comprises a single aisled hall with a curved suspended ceiling and rectangular clerestory windows. There is some modern stained glass at the liturgical west end. The former liturgical east wall is clad in an abstract pattern of black and white ceramic tiles, presumably dating from the 1968 reordering. More recently it has been further reordered, with the altar now placed on the long axis against the liturgical north aisle wall, with a suspended plain timber canopy over. The seating is arranged on three sides around the altar.

Heritage Details