Jesmond Parish Church And Choir Vestry Attached

The Jesmond Parish Church, with its attached choir vestry, was built between 1857 and 1861 by John Dobson, with the vestry added in 1874. The church was funded by public subscription to commemorate Reverend R. Clayton, a prominent Evangelical figure. It is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with an ashlar plinth and dressings, and has roofs of Welsh slate. The church is in the Gothic style.

The church includes an aisled nave with galleries, a chancel, south porches (one within the east tower), and a west baptistry. The western porch has a boarded double door within splayed reveals to a moulded arch, with tracery above a steeply-pitched gable with overlapping coping and a cross finial. The eastern porch features a diagonally-boarded double door set within a moulded and shafted opening, both doors having head-stopped drip moulds. The four-stage tower has a doorway flanked by buttresses, a niche with windows in a triple arcade above, a clock in the third stage, and tall, paired 2-light belfry openings, topped by a corbel table to a pierced parapet with open-arched corner turrets. The aisles have 2-light windows, square-headed below and Decorated up to the gallery level, set within gabled bays defined by buttresses with gargoyles. A large 5-light east window features Decorated tracery. The baptistry has 2-light, square-headed windows with head-stopped drip moulds and roll-moulded parapet coping.

Internally, the church has painted ashlar and plaster above a boarded dado with a Gothic pierced frieze, and Gothic-panelled galleries. The arch-braced collar-beam roof features octagonal piers with flower capitals and slightly-pointed single-chamfered arches, with similar carving to the shafts of the roof trusses alternating with corbels. The nave has four bays and the chancel two, with an additional bay to the north. The chancel features panelling and a reredos of the Last Supper as a memorial to Charles Dixon, D.L.I., who died in 1917. Painted Gothic arcading flanking the windows includes depictions of saints, extending to the roof. A memorial panel to Reverend Richard Clayton is positioned above the vestry door. A square, shafted font has a wooden cover. The baptistry and gallery fronts date to 1907, with a memorial panel recording recognition of the Lang family with an enamel roundel. Stained glass by Atkinson Bros. of Newcastle is found in the south baptistry and the north aisle's east window features glass by J.B. Capronnier, Brussels, dated 1886. A bronze memorial plaque in the north aisle, created by F. Clubb and Son of Hampstead, commemorates R. G. Hoare, who died in 1899. A Perpendicular-style link connects to the 3-sided apse of the attached 2-bay choir vestry, which also features 2-light windows, corner shafts and gargoyles on the eaves string, and a high hipped roof.