Roman Catholic Church of St John the Baptist

Roman Catholic Church of St John the Baptist

This is a Roman Catholic church in Early Christian Byzantine style, built 1923-25. The original design, created before 1917 by Oswald Hill (died 1917), was executed by Ernest Bower Norris of the Manchester architects' practice Hill, Sandy and Norris. The interior mosaic scheme dates to 1932-33 and was designed by Eric Newton. The building is constructed of ferro-concrete with red brick exterior walls and artificial stone dressings.

The church follows a cruciform plan with a central dome, narthex, vaulted transepts, apsidal sanctuary, and sacristy (now partially converted to a flat). The ferro-concrete dome and barrel vaults are part of a single structural system. The dome stands 95 feet (29 metres) high and 65 feet (20 metres) in diameter. Its clerestory comprises 35 deeply-recessed round-headed lights with leaded and coloured glass set behind a colonnade of engaged square columns. These columns support a shallow cupola topped with a crucifix finial.

The exterior walls are faced in brick laid in English garden wall bond (3:1 ratio). The liturgical west elevation (south), facing Dowling Street, features a deep artificial stone plinth and a tall central gable of shallow pitch, flanked by lower set-back flat-roofed bays and low single-storey flat-roofed end bays. The gable contains a tall window of five narrow round-headed lights with a panelled semi-circular arched head set within a semi-circular arched recess. Both arches have banded heads with projecting keystones. The outer arch keystone supports a cross rising into the gable apex. Wide pilasters flank the window, each decorated with a carved angel figure at the pilaster head angles. Beneath this window are a pair of three-light windows with shouldered heads. The flanking lower bays each contain a window with two narrow round-headed lights and semi-circular arched heads, positioned above double doorways with moulded surrounds and square-panelled timber doors. The low end bays have banded quoining. A plain band extends across the full width above the doors, a narrower sill band links the window openings and forms the coping to the end bays, and another plain band at the impost level of the central window spans the elevation width. All windows feature leaded small-pane glazing with coloured glass details.

The liturgical south elevation (east), facing Maclure Road, features a similar arrangement to the west elevation with a deep artificial stone plinth, tall central shallow-pitch gable flanked by set-back flat-roofed bays behind low single-storey flat-roofed bays. The right-hand bay extends to form the sacristy. The central gable has the same tall five-light window set in a semi-circular arched recess with banded heads and a cross rising from the recess keystone into the gable apex. Wide pilasters with carved angels at their head angles flank this window. Beneath it is a window with narrower windows set in each pilaster, all with shouldered heads. The outer corners of the low single-storey flat-roofed bays have banded quoining. The left bay has two shouldered-head windows. The right bay has a shouldered-head doorway with a square-panelled timber door and flanking windows with shouldered heads (now with modern brown uPVC frames, as are the other shouldered-head windows). A plain band extends across the building above these windows, a narrower sill band extends from the large central window and forms the coping to the single-storey bays, and another plain band at impost level spans the elevation width.

The liturgical east elevation (north) shows a tall central shallow-pitch gable with a lower projecting semi-circular apse, flanked by set-back flat-roofed bays. The left side shows the end bay of the low single-storey sacristy with two square windows.

The liturgical north elevation (west) is plainer, with a tall central shallow-pitch gable containing a similar central window to those on the south and west elevations but without the semi-circular arched recess or banded head. The flanking wide pilasters lack angel decorations at their angles. Lower flat-roofed bays are set back.

Internally, the apsidal sanctuary is completely faced in mosaic panels designed by Eric Newton and executed by Newton and Italian craftsmen. The central mosaic high in the apse depicts Christ the King with angels and twelve sheep at his feet representing the Apostles, set against a gold background (the concept drawn from Torcello mosaics). The patron saint is commemorated in two flanking panels showing St John baptising Christ and awaiting his own beheading. The scheme also includes depictions of Noah's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple of Jerusalem, the Holy City of Jerusalem, symbols of the four evangelists, various saints, the Chi-Rho symbol, peacocks, and the papal coat of arms of Pope Pius XI and the coat of arms of Bishop Henshaw. The arch mosaics are particularly striking, featuring two angels surrounded by jagged shapes and two panels depicting the Resurrection of the Dead. Satan consigning the Damned to Hell demonstrates knowledge of William Blake's engraving on this subject. Squared-up watercolour sketches for these designs are held in the Stella Newton Archive at the Courtauld Institute, London.

Curved walls flank the sanctuary, linking the transepts to it. These walls contain tall round-headed openings with chapels and confessionals at ground-floor level and balconies at first-floor level with curved decorative iron balustrades. The north-west corner balcony contains stairs to the choir gallery over the narthex. A late-20th century screen below a panelled front encloses the narthex.

Some furnishings were brought from the 19th-century church which this building replaced, including a font of 1830 by Lupton, and an altar and pulpit of 1898 by Alberti. The lower portions of the side transepts have been infilled: the south transept contains rooms and the north transept contains a single large meeting room.