March 12th, 2019 | Uncategorised
A bold and individual example of the popular Early Christian/Byzantine style of Catholic church building popularised by Westminster Cathedral and enjoying a vogue during the inter-war period. Of large scale but consistent and fairly plain in its detailing. The alterations of the 1950s and the re-ordering of the 1970s are sympathetic and of good quality.
March 12th, 2019 | Uncategorised
A large modern church with a high peak roof, such as enjoyed a vogue in the mid-1960s. It was planned as part of an ensemble of buildings of contrasting forms, including the hall and the much altered detached tower. The church is now served from Our Lady of Fatima, Harlow.
March 12th, 2021 | Uncategorised
A church of cathedral scale, built for the Jesuits in 1869-71 and one of J. A. Hansom’s best designs. The tower was completed in 1928 from designs by Adrian Gilbert Scott and, in the words of The Buildings of England, ‘could not be better suited to its task’. The church is notable for the quality […]
December 4th, 2020 | Uncategorised
An untypically neo-Romanesque design of the 1860s by Benjamin Bucknall, which together with its contemporary presbytery forms a group of high townscape value. Furnishings of note include stained glass window by Hardman and a reinstated set of painted copper altar panels from the former high altar. The baptistery and Sacred Heart chapel are sympathetic slightly […]
March 12th, 2019 | Uncategorised
A pioneering, but altered, multipurpose church of the late 1960s, embodying post-Vatican II ideas about church design and the role of the Church in the wider community. The worship space forms part of a complex of interlocking spaces, but was always intended as a church rather than a dual-purpose space, and fitted up accordingly. Furnishings of note include a crucifixion panel and the Stations of the Cross, made of slabs of coloured glass by Patrick Feeny of Hardman Studios.
March 12th, 2019 | Uncategorised
Architecturally of its time: modern in style, traditional in plan. The church is distinguished by its original and more recent artefacts, the John Green Stations of the Cross, the font, Buckfast stained glass and carved statues.
March 12th, 2019 | Uncategorised
The church of St Ambrose is one of the best 20th century churches in the Archdiocese. The austere character of the building’s exterior belies the refined nature of the interior, where the quality of light and space complements its advanced liturgical design. The building has been little altered since it was erected in 1959-61, and houses a number of furnishings and works of art of high quality.
March 12th, 2019 | Uncategorised
St Richards is an unremarkable building but contains an extensive scheme of stained glass, an early use in the UK of the dalles de verre technique. It also contains paintings of some quality by David O’Connell. The significance of the glass makes St Richards a candidate for statutory listing.
March 12th, 2019 | Uncategorised
The successor church to the Spanish Embassy chapel by Bonomi was built by his great-grandson, Edward Goldie, following a limited competition. Early English Gothic was the prescribed style but the design also drew on French Gothic models. The church was extended westwards by Goldie during the First World War. Bentley provided furnishings for five chapels and shrines. Situated on a tight site, its height and detailing make the church a local landmark, despite lacking its projected tower and spire.
March 12th, 2019 | Uncategorised
A suburban church of both historical and architectural significance. St Gregory’s is one of the first churches in the Archdiocese of Westminster whose design fully reflects and realises the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Its oval plan has contemporary parallels, and reflects the architect Gerald Goalen’s interest in polygonal and centralising plan forms. Like other Goalen churches, St Gregory the Great is notable for the quality of its artworks, with original furnishings by Patrick Reyntiens and others, and glass by Dom Charles Norris (added in the 1980s).
