Church Of Ss Peter, Paul And St Philomena

The Church of Saints Peter, Paul and St Philomena is a Catholic church constructed in 1935. It was designed by E. Bower Norris of Sandy and Norris, architects, based in Stafford and London. The building is a reinforced concrete shell faced with mixed red brick and ashlar limestone dressings, with a copper sheet covering to the dome. It is built in a Classical Renaissance style.

The church follows a basilican plan with a canted porch to the main entrance, side porches, a nave, centre and side aisles, transepts, a crossing beneath the dome, and a sanctuary.

The exterior features a single-storey canted porch at the main entrance, built against the tall gabled end of the nave, with deep ashlar copings incorporating a moulded cornice, and a keyed oculus at the gable apex. Side porches are accessed through setback corner towers topped with domed cupolas. The nave is a tall, barrel-vaulted structure of three bays, with a tall lancet window in the upper walling of each bay. Lower side aisles extend on both sides featuring semi-circular headed lancets. The north and south transepts are stepped, with the taller rear gable truncated and the lower front bay having a gablet. The crossing has a faceted base supporting a tall central dome, with a brick-faced drum featuring paired pilasters that break through a moulded circular cornice. A shallow parapet pierced by oval oculi sits above the cornice, topped by a faceted hemispherical dome with a cross finial. The sanctuary has an advanced centre and set-back corners to the gable wall, each side wall featuring single lancets.

Inside, a gallery and organ loft are positioned above the inner doorway at the west end. The central aisle is flanked by arcades of tall semi-circular arches, set beneath a concrete barrel vault. Side aisles have transverse arches connecting the side porches with the transept chapels. The sanctuary features a high altar with a classical marble reredos, composed of columns and pilasters supporting a semi-circular arched head. Transept chapels each contain an altar and marble reredos, with paired marble columns supporting pedimented heads. Stations of the Cross, designed in an art deco style by sculptor George Thomas of Liverpool, are also present.

The church is a prominently situated, largely unaltered building of 1935. Its monumental scale and high-quality interior detailing, particularly the hemispherical dome, make it a landmark visible from both land and sea, and it is even used as a navigational reference point on marine charts for Liverpool Bay.