St Jude's Roman Catholic Church

St Jude's Roman Catholic Church

This Grade II listed Roman Catholic church is planned as an isosceles triangle with squared-off corners. The broad north base aligns with the liturgical east, where the altar sits centrally, making the building significantly wider than it is deep. The choir gallery, porch, and baptistery are arranged along the central axis, with the circular baptistery positioned at the liturgical west apex, facing the street corner.

The church features a large reinforced double-height concrete frame with a set-back, box-like clerestorey and flat roof positioned to illuminate the altar. Flanking the entrance porch are six full-height staggered bays of stained glass windows fanning out diagonally, each with an angled flat roof rising to the outer corners. These windows contain swirling dalle de verre glass set in concrete panels. The remaining infill panels of the concrete frame are filled with solid pinkish brickwork. The south elevation above the entrance porch displays a horizontal six-light stained glass window. The single-storey, flat-roofed entrance porch and passageway connecting the church to the circular baptistery features angled timber double doors on both sides with rectangular overlights and side lights incorporating decorative ironwork screens. The passageway walls are timber with blue and red bands of stained glass. The circular brick baptistery has a concrete cap set with a horizontal clerestorey band of dalle de verre panels. Four tapering concrete fins rise from the centre of the baptistery to form an open spirelet, topped with a cross.

Internally, the expressed concrete frame has projecting uprights supporting angled beams fanning out from the long liturgical east wall to meet uprights positioned against the lower, angled rear walls. The two central roof beams cross over each other, with the clerestorey above flooding the altar with light. The recessed ceiling between the beams is timber-planked. The semi-circular sanctuary is raised several steps and retains its original Bianco Carrara marble steps, altar, and altar rails. An ambo in matching marble was installed in 2001. Behind the altar is a projecting retable covered in blue mosaic tiles. Above, flanked by concrete uprights, is a large mosaic Crucifixion designed by Hans Unger and created by mosaic artist Eberhard Schulze, signed UNGER / EBER in the bottom right corner. Christ is depicted in white, light-grey to dark-grey with strong black lines intensifying the body's shape; red tesserae depict the wounds and gold sheet tesserae form the halo. The Virgin Mary uses light beige to dark brown with yellows and greens for St John; both have gold halos. The dominant background is blue tesserae with larger pieces of stained glass or Venetian smalti fused ceramic tiles.

The spaces between the rear wall concrete uprights contain twelve staggered windows, six to either side of the porch and cantilevered concrete balcony. These consist of swirling abstract dalle de verre glass by Robin Riley, with discernible symbolic representations of Christian themes. Each window comprises nine panels with an over-arching pattern of intensely-coloured shaped glass pieces. The centre of the concrete balcony holds a symmetrical set of organ pipes. Behind the balcony is a horizontal six-light memorial window from 1977 in stained glass depicting St Jude, commemorating Father Tobin, the parish's first priest who was closely involved in the church's construction. Beneath the balcony are two sets of inner entrance doors from the porch separated by a central glazed screen. The doors are fully glazed with half-height diagonal metal door pulls.

A set of Stations of the Cross dating from circa 1967 by Earley & Co of Dublin is installed in the church.

The entrance porch contains a tapering concrete holy water stoop. A short gated passageway on its south side leads to the former baptistery. The baptistery features clerestorey dalle de verre glass by Robin Riley. A deep circular font of pale grey marble on a dark grey marble stem is set in a central circular area paved in dark grey marble. Rising from its raised rim and enclosing the font are four concrete fins which rise to form the external spirelet.