Church Of St Ambrose

CHURCH OF ST AMBROSE

Roman Catholic church, 1959-61, designed by Alfred Bullen of Weightman and Bullen, assisted by Jerzy Faczynski. The church was built to serve the new housing estate of Speke, which began development in the 1930s but expanded significantly during the 1950s.

STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS

The building has a reinforced concrete frame clad in brown brick, with stock brick cladding to the campanile. It follows a rectangular plan with a free-standing sanctuary and raised altar. The composition comprises a tall open linked campanile (84 feet high) and a low entrance range to the north, with a low range serving the Lady chapel to the south. All roofs are flat.

EXTERIOR

The concrete frame is expressed as a segmental-headed arcade with tapered pilasters, with a higher roof over the main church body set behind. Glazing appears on all four sides at upper level only, with central yellow glass panels set within clear surrounds. The campanile is divided into three sections of blind walling with open mullions to the upper section, which houses a mechanically controlled bell and is topped by an illuminated cross. Entrance doors to the vestibule and former baptistry area flank the campanile. The vestibule has clerestory glazing with stained glass panels by Gounil and Philip Brown.

INTERIOR

The interior features terrazzo floors, panelled walls, and a trabeated ceiling inset with pyramidal acoustic panels, the central ones in each block incorporating lights. A processional route or ambulatory runs under the segmental arcade behind square columns. The raised sanctuary area is finished in marble, with a stone slab altar raised a further three steps. The sanctuary and altar remain in their original position, though the altar was renewed as a single slab following post-Vatican II thinking. The font and pulpit now flank either side of the altar; the font was originally positioned by the entrance, and the present pulpit was probably originally the lectern. Altar rails survive at the rear. The former Lady chapel has "AVE MARIA" set into its floor and stained glass panels to either side by Gounil and Philip Brown. Pews occupy the remaining three sides of the sanctuary. The organ is raised above the entrance, positioned on axis with the altar.

Artistic decoration includes Stations of the Cross by Adam Kossowski, an Our Lady painting and triptych carving by Jerzy Faczynski, and wall paintings behind the altar added in the 1990s (not of special interest).

HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

St Ambrose's claims with some justification to be the first Roman Catholic church in England completed (though not the first begun) with a rectangular plan and a free-standing altar. This planning approach anticipated Archbishop John Heenan's recommendations for Liverpool Cathedral in 1960. The church was planned from the outset without a choir, making such a free plan feasible. Contemporary comment in the Cathedral Record (1961) noted: "The unique planning of the interior is likely to set a new pattern for church building in this country."

The building combines expensive natural materials with a consciously modern exposed concrete frame, reminiscent of the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, which, though not yet built at the time of design, was already widely published. The church represents an unusually broad and ambitious scale of design and remains relatively little altered.