Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph and Presbytery

This Roman Catholic church and presbytery were built between 1913 and 1916 to designs by Henry Oswald Hill, who died in 1917. The complex was subsequently extended in stages: a north transept was added between 1929 and 1937, a baptistery off the nave and a larger south entrance porch were built before 1969, and an organ loft extension to the north transept was added after 1969. The building is in the Romanesque style and features mosaics by Eric Newton. It is constructed of mottled buff and grey brick with hard red brick dressings and Westmorland slate roofs.

Plan

The church comprises a short nave of two square structural bays defined by giant arches, a crossing, north and south transepts (each with two side chapels on the east side), and a small apsidal sanctuary. The north transept has been extended to accommodate an organ loft. The presbytery is attached to the east side of the south transept and is linked internally through the vestry. It rises through two storeys with an attic storey above.

Exterior

The site slopes downwards from east to west. The church has a deep red brick plinth, broad pilaster strips edged in red brick, red brick corbel tables, a red brick eaves band, and slate roofs throughout.

The west end, which faces Taylor Street, is gabled. The projecting central bay rises almost to full height, terminating in a gable that echoes the line of the principal west gable behind it. This gable features corbel table and dentil decoration and is crowned with a Celtic cross. At ground-floor level, the central bay has a single-storey canted baptistery projection with a shaped parapet band and flat roof. Each face of the baptistery contains a rectangular window set within a round-headed recess. Above the baptistery, the bay features a tall, shallowly recessed round-headed panel containing a round-headed window with a terracotta crucifixion above it.

Flanking the baptistery in the outer bays are two single-storey, shallow, flat-roofed entrance porches with shaped parapet bands. Each porch has a round-headed doorway with recessed double doors, reached by a flight of steps with curved brick balustrade walls. The timber doors have upper lights and leaded, glazed overlights with vertical bars. Above the porches are wide pilasters with recessed inner panels topped by corbel tables and round-headed shallow recesses.

The south wall of the nave is divided into two equal bays by broad pilaster strips. Each bay has triple round-headed windows with red brick frames that extend down to the plinth beneath a corbel table. Projecting beneath the third window of the left-hand bay is a small rectangular baptistery extension with a flat roof behind a shaped parapet band. It has a flush red brick plinth, corner quoining, and an eaves band. The south elevation of this extension has two small round-headed windows. Beneath the windows in the right-hand nave bay is a shallow extension with similar detailing but a blind wall, which connects with the porch.

The porch itself is a single-storey, flat-roofed rectangular extension that overlaps the south-west corner of the south transept and projects southwards. Its detailing matches the baptistery extension. There are three segmental-arched windows in the south elevation. The entrance doorway is centred in the west elevation. It has a flat head with iron gates opening into a recessed porch, the back wall of which features a mosaic of St Joseph. The doorway is flanked by two small round-headed windows on each side.

The south transept has a hipped roof. Its south elevation consists of a wide bay flanked by broad pilaster strips, with triple round-headed windows. The porch extension projects on the left-hand side beneath the windows. The transept has a central entrance doorway set back in a recessed porch and reached by a short flight of stairs.

The north wall of the nave is also divided into two equal bays by broad pilaster strips, with triple round-headed windows with red brick frames extending down to the plinth under a corbel table. At the left-hand end stands the north transept, which has a hipped roof. Abutting its north elevation is a flat-roofed square extension with three shallow round-headed blind arches.

The east elevation is largely obscured. It has a central semi-circular apse that is lower than the east gable wall. The flanking transepts each have two round-headed windows, with two slightly projecting gabled chapels beneath. These chapels have shallow semi-circular apses with glazed roofs (only the gables of the two south chapels are visible).

Presbytery Exterior

The presbytery stands in front of the east end of the church, obscuring the semi-circular apse, with its south elevation facing Mary Street. It is five bays wide with the central bay formed by a full-height canted bay. It rises through two storeys with a steeply hipped roof containing an attic storey beneath overhanging eaves. It has a flush red brick plinth band and corner quoining, a red brick band between the ground and first floors, and a flush eaves band. The ground-floor windows have segmental-arched heads of red brick, while the first-floor windows are flat-headed. The windows have modern casement frames in the form of hung sashes. Above the flat-roofed canted bay is a dormer window with a hipped roof. There are two tall brick ridge stacks.

Attached to the left-hand (west) side elevation is a small single-storey flat-roofed outshot, which is also attached to the right-hand side of the south transept. It has a segmental-arched window in the south elevation. Above, the west side elevation of the presbytery has a single central window, with a dormer window with a hipped roof in the roof above.

The east side elevation has a tall doorway with a segmental-arched head towards the right-hand side. It has a panelled door with a glazed overlight. A single centrally placed window on both floors has been blocked. There is a centrally placed dormer window with a hipped roof.

The presbytery has been extended on the right-hand side with a flat-roofed two-storey single-bay extension to the rear of the building and a long single-storey five-bay range to the north. The two-storey extension has a rectangular ground-floor window that cuts into the brick quoining of the original north-east corner. The single-storey extension has single-light windows in the first, third and fourth bays, a wider rectangular window in the second bay, and a doorway with a rectangular overlight in the fifth bay.

Interior

Church

The two bays of the nave are defined by giant round-headed arches spanning the nave and set into the side walls. The arch piers are pierced with round-headed openings for low passage aisles. The high canted ceilings are panelled and each bay has a large hanging pendant light. The side wall arches encompass the triple windows, which are set into shallow round-headed recesses, and also contain plaster relief Stations of the Cross in gold-painted frames.

The windows in the west bay have plain leaded glazing. The left-hand recess of the south side arch has a round-headed opening into the baptistery extension, fitted with a decorative iron grille and door, with a blue and gold mosaic panel of a dove above the door. The central windows in the east bay contain stained glass figures flanked by windows with leaded glazing. Beneath half-height moulded cornices, each side wall has four panelled and part-glazed confessional doors.

The west end also has a round-headed arch set into the wall with a central narrower round-headed opening into the projecting bay. Opening off is the canted-bay baptistery with a relief-carved tympanum showing Jesus being baptised by St John. The three small windows contain stained glass roundels. In the north and south walls of the projecting bay are panelled double doors with leaded upper lights and high semi-circular overlights with timber mullions and transoms and leaded lights, which open into the two entrance porches.

The crossing also has tall round-headed arches into the sanctuary and transepts and a high canted panelled ceiling. On the east side is a dark grey and white marble step that continues into the side transepts. In front of the sanctuary, the step is inset with patterned mosaic bands and a rectangular panel of the Lamb of God. Standing on the left-hand side is a hexagonal stone font. In the transepts, the step has altar rails of white and grey marble with inset vertical decorative panels of mosaic, and there are panels of mosaic inset in front of the side chapels.

The apsidal sanctuary is raised by a further five steps. Flanking the second step are two rectangular coloured marble pulpits with narrow bands of blue and gold mosaic. Above are cantilevered baldacchini decorated with mosaic. The walls of the sanctuary have an engaged Doric arcade with a heavy entablature band. The arcade archways to each side of the central archway contain opus sectile mosaic panels. The two left panels depict the Birth of Christ and the Flight into Egypt. The two right panels depict the Holy Family in the carpenter's workshop of St Joseph and the Death of St Joseph. The central panel has blue tesserae mosaic with a thin gold band and Crucifixion with stone statues and a wooden cross. The semi-dome of the apse has tesserae mosaic depicting the Coronation of the Virgin against a gold background. The altar is of coloured marble in a classical design with engaged Doric columns and an opus sectile mosaic roundel.

The east pier of the south transept arch has a round-headed doorway through to the vestry, aligned with the arches of the passage aisle. The east pier of the north transept has a round-headed recess containing a mosaic of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in the manner of a Byzantine icon.

Both transepts have two east side chapels with marble arcades, grey marble dados, tesserae or tiled walls, top-lit statue niches with statues, and marble altars with inset mosaic panels. The south wall of the south transept has three windows containing stained glass in round-headed recesses. On the left-hand side is a First World War memorial panel. On the west side of the south transept there is a wooden and decorative ironwork narthex for the south entrance porch.

The north transept has two plain round-headed arcades in the north wall opening into the extension. The lower arcade has double timber and glazed doors flanking a central Pieta statue commemorating those lost in the Second World War. The upper arcade opens into the organ loft.

Presbytery Interior

The presbytery retains its layout of a spine corridor containing the main staircase with rooms to either side. There is a back staircase in the north-east corner. The main staircase has square newels with shaped hexagonal finials at the bottom and returns, with a moulded timber handrail and square balusters. The main reception rooms on the ground floor have moulded cornices. The ground and first-floor rooms have vertical panelled doors with deep frieze rails and moulded architraves. The attic rooms have four-panelled doors with moulded architraves. The fireplaces have 1950s mantelpieces.