Roman Catholic Church of St Cecilia, including boundary wall, railings, gate piers and gates

The Roman Catholic Church of St Cecilia is a church built in 1929–30 to designs by Ernest Bower Norris, with mosaic work executed by Ludwig Oppenheimer Limited. Constructed in mellow red brick with Portland stone and concrete dressings under a pantile roof, the church is designed in the Italian Romanesque style.

The church stands on the north-east side of Green Lane and is aligned north-east to south-west, with transepts at the west and east ends, side aisles, a north vestry and confessionals projection, and a deep sanctuary. A mid-20th-century detached presbytery and single-storey link to the north-east of the church are not of special interest and are excluded from the listing. Geographical references in this description refer to the ritual orientation of the building, not true compass directions.

Exterior

The Church of St Cecilia is a relatively compact building dominated externally by its tripartite west end. The elevations incorporate round-headed windows of varying sizes with gauged-brick heads and stained and leaded glass. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods include hoppers bearing decorative reliefs and the date '1930'.

The tripartite west end features a near full-height round-headed central recess set beneath a small gable. The gable uses dressings to create the appearance of a pediment and is surmounted by a cross finial. The recess contains the west entrance and west window, which are executed in Portland stone and form a frontispiece. The entrance's square-headed doorcase projects forward slightly to form a shallow porch and is surmounted by a statue of a hooded St Cecilia holding a sword with her head bowed. Below the statue is the inscription 'SANCTA CAECILIA PATRONA MUSICAE SACRAE ORA PRO NOBIS' ('St Cecilia, patron saint of sacred music, pray for us'). The doorcase, flanked by narrow square-headed windows, contains square-panelled double doors and incorporates cable moulding, slender carved crosses, and a relief carving depicting angels holding a wreath containing a harp, further referencing St Cecilia as the patron saint of music and musicians. Above the entrance, and partly behind the statue of St Cecilia, three herringbone brickwork panels separate the entrance from the west window. The west window comprises three tall round-headed lancets with a circular light above the centre and carved spandrels. Above the window is a carved console relief. Flanking the entrance bay are octagonal turrets with stone caps. At the top of the turrets, continuing across the entrance bay, is a blind arcade with some louvred openings. Projecting to the north and south sides are gabled transepts with near full-height recesses to each side topped by Lombard friezes and containing single and paired windows, with a blind window at the gable apex. The south transept also incorporates a south-west entrance with double doors matching those of the west entrance and a solid tympanum with a painted relief depicting the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.

The four-bay nave has a dentil band just below the eaves and a clerestory set above low flat-roofed side aisles, all with round-headed lancets. The clerestory windows are slightly taller than those to the side aisles. The gabled north and south transepts at the east end of the church are taller than the west transepts and each has a tall shallow round-headed recess to the centre containing a three-light lancet window in Portland stone with a raised centre light and carved spandrels. The recess is flanked by shallow buttress-like projections adorned with a concrete cross, and patterned brickwork to the gable apex forms a cross motif. Small round-headed lancets light the west side returns. Attached to the north transept is a single-storey flat-roofed vestry, sacristy and confessionals projection. The deep two-bay sanctuary has two clerestory windows to each north and south side and a flat-roofed three-sided windowless apse. Attached to each north and south side are low flat-roofed side chapels.

Interior

Internally the walls and nave arcade piers are of exposed brick up to the level of the springing of the arcades and plastered above. Most of the windows contain stained glass, including Christian symbols. A parquet floor survives throughout but is now (2016) largely hidden under later carpet. The nave and side aisles contain bench pews. Mosaic work within the church was carried out by Ludwig Oppenheimer Limited and was possibly by Eric Newton, although this is unconfirmed.

The four-bay nave has an arcade to each north and south side comprised of round arches resting upon brick piers with stencil decoration to the intrados of each arch. The side aisles contain Stations of the Cross and have cross-vaulted ceilings with round arches spanning across to meet each nave pier. The nave, transepts and sanctuary share a ribbed barrel-vaulted roof with clerestory windows and stencil decoration to the ribs. The roof is now clad in later acoustic tiles.

At the west end of the nave is an arcaded narthex with an organ gallery above, accessed via a stair at the south end of the narthex by the south-west entrance. At the east end of the nave the north transept has two blind arches set into the north wall containing six-panel doors that lead into two confessionals and the vestry and sacristy respectively. The south transept contains an octagonal marble pulpit adjacent to the sanctuary arch. The side chapels off the transepts are dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart and have marble altars, marble-clad walls and mosaic work.

The sanctuary rails are composed of various black, pink, green and cream marbles and continue across the front of the side chapels. The sanctuary has two arched openings to each north and south side. Those to the west lead into the side chapels and those to the east are blind. The walls to all three sides of the sanctuary are clad up to the level of the springing of the arches in black marble with elaborate and extensive mosaic work above, including depictions of angels, St Patrick, St Anthony of Padua, and winged creatures symbolic of the four evangelists (St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke and St John) to the sanctuary arch, and a mosaic depiction of the Crucifixion above the altar and reredos. The sanctuary's north side wall also includes a depiction of a sanctified soul being received into heaven flanked by angels, whilst the south wall includes a dramatic mosaic imitation of a medieval Doom painting depicting a damned soul being plunged into hell by demons.

The reredos, which is over 20 feet high, is composed of various white, black and pink marbles and is Baroque in style, incorporating a broken pediment and half-columns. The altar, composed of the same marbles, was originally attached to the reredos but was sliced off and moved forward slightly in the 1970s. It incorporates a large niche or shelf underneath the altar slab on the west side that contains a Baroque effigy of St Cecilia in white marble. The effigy is based upon Stefano Maderno's 1599–1600 original in the Church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome, Italy, and incorporates three outstretched fingers on her right hand and one on her left that symbolise the Holy Trinity.

Boundary Wall, Railings, Gate Piers and Gates

Enclosing the church to the west and south sides is a low brick boundary wall with concrete copings and low-level piers at intermediate spacings. Surmounting the walls and linking the piers are low painted cast-iron railings incorporating scrolled sections. Two sets of tall, square, panelled gate piers with concrete caps exist to the west side, with a further set to the south side, fitted with painted cast-iron gates incorporating some scrolled decoration. The gates in line with the west entrance are larger.