Church Of St Thomas The Martyr

The Church of St Thomas the Martyr is an extra-parochial peculiar church located at Barras Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was built between 1825 and 1830 by architect John Dobson. The church is constructed of sandstone ashlar and features a Welsh slate roof. It has an aisled nave that incorporates a west tower and a shallow chancel with porches on both the north and south sides. The design is in a modified Early English style.

The west porch in the tower has wrought iron gates and is adorned with a cross-ribbed vault and high arches leading to the aisles and nave. The four-stage tower includes a high moulded west arch, flanked by triple nook shafts and blind lancets beneath pierced sloping parapets. The second stage features double flying buttresses with a blind arcade, and there is a clock in the low third stage. The belfry openings are tall and empty, and the pierced parapet is accented by corner spirelets on the octagonal buttresses and central side pinnacles. The nave has paired lancet windows in five bays and triple lancet windows with shafts on the east front, along with tall pinnacles on the buttresses at the corners.

Inside, the church has plaster above the wainscotting and ribbed cross vaults in the nave and aisles, supported by slender quatrefoil piers. There are galleries on three sides, with the west gallery housing an organ that was inserted in 1960, originally built in 1837. The east window features glass from 1881, while other 19th-century glass can be found in the north aisle. A white marble memorial to Robert Wasney, who died in 1836, was created by C. Tate and depicts a woman standing beside an altar. Additionally, battle honours from the South African War (1899-1902) and the Great War (1914-1918) for the 6th Northumberland Fusiliers are framed at the east end of the north aisle. The church was built by the Trustees of the St. Mary Magdalene and Holy Jesus Hospitals to replace a medieval chapel at the end of Tyne Bridge.