Church of St Paul the Apostle, Paddington and attached church rooms, vicarage, garden wall and gates

Church of St Paul the Apostle, Paddington

A church dating to 1855–6, substantially restored and embellished in the early 1970s, with attached church rooms and vicarage of circa 1970. The 19th-century work was by EH Shellard; the 20th-century restoration and new buildings were designed by Stephen Dykes-Bower. The church is built of coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs with stone-coped gables topped with finials, in the Decorated style.

The church comprises a chancel with bell turret, nave, aisles and south porch. The east end features a 5-light window with a bell turret to its side, which has an octagonal arcaded top with shafts and spire. A north-east porch provides access to the church and links to the church rooms. The north aisle has 3-light windows, while the south aisle has triangular windows at either end, 3-light windows to the side, and a south porch with a door beneath a segmental pointed arch.

Interior

The chancel contains an elaborate altar rail and carved choir stalls, both salvaged from St Alban, Rochdale. The roof features arched braces to collars rising from stone corbels, richly painted and gilded with stencilled decoration to the panelling. A late 20th-century wrought-iron choir screen by Norman Furneaux, who worked at Westminster Abbey and Bury St Edmunds, divides the space.

The nave contains an elaborately carved font on clustered columns, also from St Alban, Rochdale (designed by J Clarke). Pews throughout the nave and aisles come from St Anne, Brindle Heath (designed by FP Oakley). In the south aisle stands an organ of 1787 by Samuel Green, rescued from St Thomas, Ardwick. The nave roof has arched braces to collars rising from hammer beams and curved braces from carved corbels, richly painted, gilded and decorated with stencilling. The aisle roofs are similarly treated.

Church Rooms, Vicarage and Garden

Attached at right angles to the church via the north-east porch is a range of church rooms with vicarage above, completed circa 1970. This structure is built of coursed squared stone with a slate-hung first floor and slate roof. The two-storey range features leaded casements at first floor—a mix of 2-light and 4-light windows—above ten wooden mullion windows with decorative heads, creating a cloister-like effect. A passage runs behind these windows, accessed by a doorway at the right end. The rear of the vicarage has similar leaded casements at first floor over ten 2-light casements at ground floor, with a doorway to the left.

A high garden wall of coursed squared stone extends from the left end of the vicarage on the cloister side and turns at right angles to join the north-west end of the church, enclosing a square garden. The wall features very elaborate iron gates.

History and Restoration

By the early 1970s the church had fallen into severe disrepair and faced demolition and rebuilding. Canon David Wyatt, the vicar, and architect Stephen Dykes-Bower worked together to undertake a comprehensive restoration and embellishment instead. Dykes-Bower restored the nave roof and replaced the aisle roofs with monopitched versions, remodelled the south porch, and designed elaborate stencilled decoration for the roofs. He also conceived the attached church rooms with vicarage flat above, designed as one side of a cloister, with the other two sides formed by a garden wall—an ensemble evoking medieval cloistered life. The church interior contains fine fittings salvaged from demolished churches to replace original fittings that had decayed.