Roman Catholic Church Of Saint Francis Xavier

SJ 3591 SALISBURY STREET L3

23/1087 Roman Catholic Church of Saint 28.6.52 Francis Xavier

G.V. II*

Catholic church. 1845-9. J. J. Scoles, the Lady Chapel added 1888 by E. Kirby. Stone with slate roof. Geometrical. Name with aisles under separate roofs, short chancel flanked by chapels with Lady chapel to 'SE' (ritual 'W' is actual N). Tower to south west has spire. Aisles have 2-light windows, north aisle has 8 to north , one to west. Nave has 4-light west windows and wheel window above, no clerestory. Tower has set-back buttresses and pointed arched entrances to south. 3-light bell openings and recessed spire behind altered parapet has lucarnes and diapered bands; 4 pinnacles at the angles of tower. Chancel of one bay has canted end with 2-light windows. Lady chapel is of 2 bays with canted corner bays. Buttresses end in pinnacles, 2 light windows; 3-light west window. Interior: Nave has 7-bay arcades on slender marble columns (now painted). Wagon roof with iron ties. Chancel arch. North aisle has trefoil heads to confessional entries. High altar and reredos by S. J. Nicholl of white marble, with arcading and pinnacles. Altar rails of coloured marble. Rood under chancel arch. Caen stone pulpit on south side of nave. Chapels have altars and rerdoses similar to High altar. Elaborate stone font at west end of nave. Lady chapel has apsidal ends to west and east, that to east forming ambulatory with arcade on marble columns. Marble wall snafts and ribbed plaster vault. Tabernacle doors said to be by Conrad Dressler. An important church in the alternative tradition to that of A. W. Pugin, and a good, largely unaltered example of Scoles' work. H. R. Hitchcock, Early Victorian Architecture, 1954, p.90.

Listing NGR: SJ3563691165