Church Heritage Record 622014

6-bay nave with narrow north and south aisles, north baptistery, west entrance lobbies; chancel with choir and clergy vestries to the north, organ chamber to the south. Subterranean boiler house beneath the vestries. Roof features central flèche.

No finds of archaeological importance have been reported in the vicinity of the church, and no previous building is known to have existed on the site. No known burials to churchyard. Some trees and shrubs, but no known designations.

A detailed church history, produced in 1942, records the early history of the church. The foundation stone was laid on May 9, 1903. In 1941, two heavy high-explosive bombs fell on the church hall, which was being used as a temporary shelter for those who had lost their homes. All those in the church, which included member of the church’s Knitting Circle and church staff who were in charge of about fifty-six refugees, lost their lives. The present church hall (on the point of being sold to the Elim Pentecostal Church) was built as a memorial.

Entrance lobbies at the west end, with a parapet. The main west doorway consists of paired wooden doors in a Gothic-arched surround, which has smooth reveals either side but roll-moulding above, and well-defined voussoirs to the tympanum. The section of the western lobbies steps forward and is defined with a pointed pediment. Either side of this central section is a square window, two-light, with cusped tracery; beneath the window on the south side is a foundation stone. The lobbies step out again to N and S. These corner lobbies have pyramidal roofs set within the parapets (the lobbies otherwise have a flat roof) and pointed pediments above the doorways N and S, which are detailed like the W entrance. The N and S lobbies have gableted diagonal buttresses at three corners; between those to the west façade on each side is a square window, two-light, with cusped tracery. The inner buttresses to the west façade, pointing inwards, help to emphasise the west doors, a good detail.

The E and W facades of the nave, and the (lower) E façade of the chancel, are defined by clasping buttresses with square parapets; those to the chancel are slightly battered. All three facades have pointed gables topped with a stone cross. The east and west windows have hoodmoulds, and the W façade is decorated with bands of terracotta. There are pitched roofs to the nave and chancel; arising from the centre of the ridge of the nave roof is an elegant flèche, octagonal and shingled, with a splay-foot roof supported on wooden brackets.

Flat-roofed aisles N and S, each bay defined by weathered buttresses that stop short of the parapets. Paired short lancets to each bay, with a string-course beneath. Additionally, at the NW corner of the nave, is an hexagonal baptistery with triangular buttresses and a single lancet to each bay. The bays of the nave are defined by weathered and gableted buttresses, and each contains a clerestory window in Tudor-arched surrounds. There are similar windows to the chancel, two to the N and one to the S.

Projecting from the N side of the chancel, under a hipped roof, are the single-storey choir and clergy vestries. Weathered angle buttresses to E and W. Stepping out from the N façade is an entrance portal under a weathered lintel, containing a doorway (up two steps) in a Tudor-arched surround. To either side of this portal is a window in a square surround; that to the W is three-light, that to the E is one-light. There are also three-light and one-light windows to the E façade of the clergy vestry, in front of which a set of stairs descends to the boiler house.

Projecting from the S side of the chancel is the two-storey organ chamber. It has a pitched roof; its S façade features windows in square surrounds, two-light to the ground floor and three-light to the first floor; the gable rises to a bell-cote.

Narrow aisles to N and S, separated from the nave by a low arcade of triangular pillars (orientated to offer a flat side to the aisle and a point to the nave), separated by pointed arches. Clerestory above of single-light windows with a little perpendicular tracery. To each bay of the aisles, paired cusped lancet windows in a pointed-arched surround. Westernmost bay to N has a secondary arch to a baptistery, up two steps, with three small windows – cusped lancets containing stained glass. Arcade continues across W end, with three bays, screened with wooden doors with glazed panels, giving on to entrance lobbies. W window with perpendicular tracery filled with clear glass, seven-light. The barrel-vaulted nave roof rests on ogee-curved wooden brackets springing from plain stone corbels. Stone chancel arch with hood-mould with uncarved stops. Low stone walls to chancel, which is raised by three steps; a further step at the communion rail, two steps up to sanctuary, and the altar is on a dais of a single step. Wood panelling to chancel. A string-course runs around the chancel, beneath two windows to N side of chancel; central E window; and one window to the S. Stone arch to organ chamber, to the S; doorway to vestry in pointed wooden arch, S. E window with stained glass in perpendicular tracery, five-light. Barrel-vaulted chancel roof divided into panels. Easternmost bay of S aisle is enclosed by a curtain, forming storage space. E end of N aisle gives on to a meeting room (presumably once the choir vestry) parallel to the chancel, from which a further door gives on to a small entrance lobby with doors to a lavatory and the sacristy: the sacristy, lavatory and meeting room all have square-topped windows.