St Theresa Of The Child Jesus Roman Catholic Church And Attached Parish Rooms

The Church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus and attached parish rooms was designed in 1952 by Francis Xavier Velarde and built between 1955 and 1957. Sculpture was carved by Herbert Tyson Smith. The building is constructed of brown brick with ashlar dressings and plain tile roofs. It comprises a nave with a Galilee porch, a single east aisle, a detached north-east tower and a chancel.

The south or ritual west front is largely blank, featuring a single-story Galilee porch and a circular window above. To the east aisle are a pair of round-headed windows with a carved stone mullion between. The east front of the nave has a doorway with double doors and a cusped head with an ashlar tympanum, beyond which is a blank aisle wall with projecting buttresses topped with carved figures. Above are pairs of round-headed clerestory windows with carved mullions. To the right, a short passage connects to the square tower with a further doorway, cusped head and carved tympanum. The tower has a circular window to its south face and a stone carved Pieta under a curved hood on its east face; all faces feature small diamond-shaped windows to the staircase. The ashlar top stage of the tower has three rows of two round arched bell openings on each face, topped by a large pyramidal copper roof with a gilded cross.

The chancel has a triple arched window with carved mullions to the aisle, and above, two pairs of similar round arched windows with carved mullions. The ritual east end is marked by a blank, shallow curved wall.

The parish room and vestry are attached to the north-west corner, with four arched windows with carved mullions on each floor to the south. A tall square chimney stack stands in the corner. The west front of the nave has five full-height battered buttresses with ashlar caps. The ground floor has four pairs of round arched windows with carved mullions, above which are five single round arched windows.

Inside, the nave arcade to the east features five arched openings with circular gold mosaic piers with painted capitals and black mosaic bases. The arcade has round brick arches. The chancel has two plain brick arches. The nave and aisle have wooden roofs with gilded diamond patterning. Contemporary wooden pews and a pulpit are present. The chancel is raised by three steps, with a metal altar rail and a stone altar table with carved and gilded circular piers; a painted reredos with opening doors is also present. A glazed screen, originally to the Galilee porch, now serves as a side chapel. The baptistry, at the base of the tower, features a stone carved cubic font with a carved front.

The building is a very fine surviving work by a leading Roman Catholic architect of the 20th century.