Church Heritage Record 632361

Wide nave, narrow aisles, porches at the north-west and south-west, lower apsidal ended chancel, vestry and organ chamber to the north and south of the chancel contained in short, transeptal projections, and a porch at the east end of the south aisle.

In 1873, a wooden church, formerly at Woburn, was erected in High Town where it was served by a curate from St. Mary's. In the same year, St. Matthew's mission was assigned a district. The foundation stone of the present church was laid in 1875 and the building was consecrated three years later. The architects were G. Vialls and J.R. Brown and the builder was C. Miskin. The total cost was £6,700. St. Matthew's Schools were built in 1873-4 in Havelock Road, and a parsonage was added to the west of the church in 1876. These ancillary buildings were almost certainly by the same architects. Elsewhere in the county, Vialls built the chancel of Christ Church, Luton, and J.R. Brown and Son built the church of St. Andrew, Woodside, Luton, in 1890. The latter is in the idiom of St. Matthew, of brick with transepts, bell-cote and plate tracery.

The building is composed of plum-coloured Bedford brick with dressings of stone. The roofs are tiled and the brickwork is laid in English bond. The roof is carried on a corbel table around nave, aisles, transepts and polygonal apse except for the porches, the gabled west end of the nave and the gabled faces of the transepts. The aisles which are buttressed are covered by lean-to roofs. The west front is divided into three bays by two buttresses terminated by gables and the antral bay has a somewhat taller lancet than the side bays at clerestory level. Beneath these a gable is flanked by two further lancets. The gable indicates the position of the baptistery behind; this is lit by a circular opening in which is inscribed a trefoil. In the gable of the west wall a circular light accommodates a quatrefoil and above all rises the western bellcote which is finished by a pyramidal cap and a gable cross. It houses two bells of unknown provenance. The north-west and south-west porches are gabled with ornate crosses, and their faces are divided into compartments by lines of moulded brickwork.

Both transepts bear two lancets beneath a circular light on their gabled faces; the circular light of the south transept on Havelock Road is appropriately more conspicuous with its pattern of a six lobed flower. The clerestory is divided into four pairs of lencets, each light bearing its own hood. Elsewhere on the exterior the hoods of the windows are provided by continuous moulded brick string courses and further courses of brickwork underline the sills. The aisle windows are not hooded. The faces of the polygonal apse are lit by a stepped triple lancet in plate tracery which is otherwise pierced by two small circles. The three faces are linked by a continuous hood mould and decoration of the walls is afforded by the use of banded bright rod bricks which contrast with the plum-purple .of the remainder of the brickwork. The sills of the apse windows rest on a continuous line of stone.

The nave is of four bays with a short bay west of this accommodating both the western baptistery which is recessed behind an arch resting on foliate corbels, and the entrance to the porches. Access to the porches is gained via moulded brick arches in the nave and aisles. The arcade rests an circular stone piers with octagonal bases, circular abaci and foliage capitals. The arches are of brick and the eastern responds are corbelled out from the wall. The foliage of the capitals of the central piers bear small carved faces to the north, south, east and west. The nave roof is composed of arched braces which are divided by tie-beams and the shape is suggestive of a hammer beam roof. Wall posts are supported on corbels composed of stone heads of aged men with brick supports. A double string course defines a narrow triforium space between the clerestory and the brick arcade and another string course provides the hoodmoulding for the clerestory windows. Almost all the string course work inside the church is of brick. The aisle lean-tos are painted white between rafters and the principal rafters separate the lancets in each bay. The aisle roofing is supported by struts against the arcade. The chancel arch is composed of moulded brick and stone. The inner order of stone rests on slender shafts with shaft rings, which are topped with foliage capitals. The nave is spacious and wide but the lancet lighting, especially at the west end, renders this a dark space. The floor is of wood blocks and tiles and the seating is by means of chairs of light coloured wood. This helps to mitigate the sombre effect.

The chancel roof is boarded and divided into compartments. The splayed sills of the eastern windows bear the inscription painted in Gothic letters 'This Do in Remembrance of Me'. A low brick, stone-capped chancel wall is surmounted by newly painted ironwork. The eatern interior walls of the apse have the same treatment of banded brick as the exterior, but the bricks are black. The north transept is screened and curtained from the church and is used as a vestry whilst the south transept is in use as an organ chamber.