Church Of St Nicholas

The Church of St Nicholas is a parish church built between 1857 and 1858 by architect J.P. Pritchett. It is constructed from snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings and features a graduated Lakeland slate roof with stone gable copings. The church has an aisled nave and chancel, a south porch, and a south tower, all designed in the Decorated style.

The tower, located in the second bay from the west, is five stages high and has angle buttresses with gabled offsets. It includes a double door with ornate iron hinges set in a shafted and moulded surround, decorated with ballflower motifs. The arms of the City of Durham and the church are depicted in blind quatrefoils on either side of the door, beneath a quatrefoil band and sloped coping that mimic the design of the Kepier Hospital gatehouse. Above the door is an elaborate canopied niche that holds a statue of St. Nicholas, flanked by blind cross-slits. The tall third stage of the tower features two high windows, and a clock is supported by mask brackets under a pinnacled gablet. Above this, paired two-light belfry openings are set under a battlemented parapet supported by ballflower- and-mask brackets. The tower is topped with gabled corner pinnacles and a tall octagonal stone spire with lucarnes.

The aisle windows are three-light in design and are located in bays defined by buttresses with gablets and pinnacles. The chancel features a four-light window in the first bay, while the clerestory has rounded triangular windows. The east front includes a shallow gabled porch in the south aisle and a two-light window in the north, along with gabled buttresses. The large east window is five-light, and there is a four-light window on the west side.

Inside, the church has painted plaster walls and a roof supported by an arch-braced collar and king-post structure. The north arcade has four bays, while the south arcade has two bays, both featuring leaf-carved capitals on shafted columns. The high chancel arch is styled similarly. The interior has been re-ordered, with the chancel arch and aisles filled with glazed screens that form a chapel. The tower features an eight-ribbed vault with heraldic and floral corbels, and a central boss carved with "ST.N." and dated 1858. Traceried stone screens in the chancel commemorate Ralph Dixon and were gifted by the proprietors of Durham Waterworks in 1858. The stained glass in the south aisle was created by L.C. Evetts in 1963.