Church Heritage Record 610058

Four-bay nave with wide south and narrow north aisles, western vestry and porch; chancel with south chapel and north organ chamber.

The church was designed in 1848 by Richard Cromwell Carpenter (1812-1855), a friend of Pugin and closely associated with the Cambridge Camden Society. St. Peter the Great Chichester was designed in 1848; the foundation stone was laid in 1850 and the Church was consecrated on 17 August 1852. During this time Carpenter was also engaged on All Saints Brighton (demolished), the restoration of Sherborne Abbey (notable for its sensitivity), the magnificent church of St. Mary Magdalene, Munster Square, and a plan for a new church at Galle in Ceylon. In 1850 he had consulted the Ecclesiological Society on the restoration of Little Maplestead in Essex and this was put in hand shortly after. His restoration of Chichester Cathedral took from 1847 to 1852 and thus also spanned the building of this church. The church cost £5650, and was licensed for worship in February 1851 before its consecration on 17 August that year. The west porch was added in 1881-2 to designs by Dunn and Hansom; the builder was Frederick Vick and the carving was executed by Farmer and Brindley.

The exterior is a model of restraint and skilfully judged proportions. The south wall of the nave is of four bays, each divided from the next by a tall buttress with a plain sloping weathering at the top. The four windows are of identical design, each of three lights with leaf-like Decorated tracery. Other small details which show Carpenter's sureness of touch are the simple moulding along the wall at sill-level which embraces each buttress also, the slightly heavier moulding lower on the wall and the delicate cornice of ball-flower at the eaves.

The larger buttress at the west and the blind west wall of the aisles shows that a tower was intended for this position but this was never built. Instead, a low porch was erected thirty years later against the west wall of the aisle and nave to designs by Dunn and Hansom. The carving by Farmer and Brindley is more lavish, especially the oak leaves on the capitals of the semi-octagonal jambs to the outer doorway, the trail of leaves along the parapet and the characterful lion-head at the corner. The stops of the doorway are carved as lively human heads which appear to be portraits and the group of two leaves and an acorn which is turned away from the capital to which they belong is a pleasing naturalistic touch. The porch continues northward to house the vestry under the same roof and both sections are lit by trefoiled ogee-headed lights in the west wall. At the apex of the hipped tiled roof is a pretty iron cross.

Eastwards of the south nave aisle lies the chapel on the south side of the chancel, of the same width as the aisle but slightly lower. It has a small doorway placed off-centre in the south wall and two two-light windows above a stringcourse. At the south-east angle is a pair of angle buttresses and the east window, of four lights, is filled with curvilinear tracery immediately reminiscent of St. Mary Magdalene Munster Square in London. This gable is complementary to the slightly larger gable of the chancel lying to the north, and similarly the four-light chapel window echoes the great five-light window in the chancel east wall (prototypes of all these windows may be seen in Sharpe's Decorated Windows - especially his examples from Yaxley and Houghton le Spring - published at this time). All the windows have heads garved at the label-stops and the eaves also terminate with carved hoads on the kneelers, although some of these are now badly eroded.

After the dignified grandeur of a south aisle set under its own gable, it comes as a surprise to find the north aisle about half the width of the south and set under a shallowly pitched pent roof. Again the windows are of the same design as those in the south aisle, but with one gap where a doorway is provided in the second bay from the west. There are no buttresses and the aisle is prolonged halfway along the chancel in order to provide an organ chamber within. The remainder of the chancel wall is blind but at the foot is a small square choir vestry with a roof hidden by a parapet. The east will of the north aisle has a three light window which lights the organ chamber.

Entrance is normally through the later porch at the west end of the nave which, lying parallel to the wall, is roofed with an open scissor-braced timber roof. The interior walls are plastered and painted white. Directly opposite the arch leading from the street is an arched doorway to the vestry and on the right a similar arched doorway opens into the south aisle. The vestry also has a scissor braced roof and a small doorway communicating with the nave. All the doorways have stops carved a heads which appear to be portraits. The floor is paved with red and black tiles.

Since all the glass save one window was blown out during the war, the interior is flooded with light, which is not how it was intended to be seen. The light falling on whitewashed walls and pale Caen stone, however, certainly adds to the impression of cool dignity. The quatrefoil piers are tall and carry arches elaborated with scholarly mouldings which are complemented by the cusped curvilinear tracery in all the windows. The pews are low, with square ends, and do not interfere with the architectural spaciousness. The chancel arch is carried on triple shafts with fillets up the edges like the nave piers and a similar though slightly smaller arch opens from the south aisle into the south chancel chapel. On the north side a very much smaller arch opens from the narrower north aisle into the organ chamber. Although the aisles are of very different proportions, the arcades are identical and the balance of the building is thereby retained. Throughout the floors are paved with black and red tiles in the alleys, with gothic iron gratings above the heating pipes. Along one of the chancel steps is the text DRAW NEAR WITH FAITH.

The chancel is slightly raised above the level of the nave and is of two bays, with two arches opening into the chapel on the south and one on the north framing the organ, while east of this a small doorway leads into the choir vestry, with a trefoiled head and carvings of acorns and ivy leaves on the capitals. The chancel roof is boarded over with thin struts dividing the area into panels. The other roofs of the church, in particular those of the nave and south aisle, are designs of simplicity enhanced by the bold cusping on the crossed windbraces. The bays of the roof are double in number compared with the arcades below, and the principals are spanned by collars supported by arch braces. Three levels of purlins are employed, between the lower two of which on each side are the cusped wind braces already mentioned. The effect is one of a truly mediaeval simplicity and character.