Roman Catholic Church of St Charles Borromeo with attached presbytery and associated boundary walls and railings

Roman Catholic Church of St Charles Borromeo with Attached Presbytery and Associated Boundary Walls and Railings

Roman Catholic church. Built in 1829 by J Earl, enlarged in 1835 by JJ Scoles, and remodelled in 1894 by Smith, Brodrick and Lowther. Interior decoration partly executed in 1894 by H Immenkamp. Designed in Classical Revival style with Italian Baroque and Austrian Rococo interior decoration.

Materials

The church is built of brick, with the street elevation finished in stucco and artificial stone dressings. The roofs are covered in slate.

Plan

The church faces south rather than west, but the following description uses conventional liturgical orientation. The building has a broad nave with narrow side aisles. The nave contains a west gallery and flows almost seamlessly into the square-ended chancel to the east. The south aisle features a side chapel at its east end and a small Lady Chapel projecting southward. The presbytery is attached to the south of the west end.

Exterior

The church presents a five-bay front defined by quoins, with the central three bays also quoined and topped by a pediment. The large central door is set within a round-arched, embellished doorcase, protected by a substantial pedimented porch supported by Corinthian columns projecting from the centre. The porch is flanked by round-arched niches containing statues of St Charles Borromeo and St Margaret Clitherow, positioned above low segmentally-arched windows. The outer bays are blind except for domestic-sized doorways set in round-arched rusticated doorcases. A guilloche band unifies the church façade, running at cill level for the niches and at impost level for the flanking doorways. Below this band, the stucco is channelled and the quoins are vermiculated, while the walls to the basement below street level are plain rendered.

The church façade is unified with that of the presbytery to the south by means of a cill band, which sits at first floor level for the church but at second floor level for the presbytery. The three windows to the church above this band have eared architraves and stained glass with broad margin glazing. The porch frieze carries the inscription DOMVS DEI, with the Papal insignia in coloured relief set in the tympanum. The church pediment is topped by a stone cross finial and contains within its tympanum a coat of arms beneath a cardinal's galero.

The presbytery rises three storeys and is topped by a large central ridge stack. Its dentillated and enriched eaves cornice continues that of the church to the left. The presbytery is four bays wide with a central rainwater downpipe and rusticated quoining to the right. Windows have moulded surrounds of differing design on each floor and retain hornless sashes: six-over-six panes on the ground and first floors, three-over-three on the top floor. Entry to the presbytery is gained via the side door to the church.

Other external elevations of both church and presbytery either directly abut neighbouring buildings or are of functional appearance. Permission to raise the side aisle roofs was granted in 2014.

Interior

The interior of the church is richly embellished with mouldings, much of it highlighted with gold leaf and multi-coloured paintwork. Only a small proportion of the decoration is described below. Areas of plain plaster are generally painted to imitate marble.

Chancel

The chancel is lit from above via a glazed lantern rising from the dome high above the altar. It is defined from the nave by a pair of embellished Corinthian columns supporting draped female figures that form part of the arch bracing to the ceiling. The reredos includes a crested segmental pediment on scrolled brackets, flanked by paired fluted Ionic demi-columns that support a rich entablature. Rising above this is a painted sculptured scene of the Holy Trinity showing a globe set in billowing clouds with angels, with the Holy Spirit descending as a dove from a glory, flanked by Christ and God the Father, both casually seated on top of the entablature. Above all this is a painted fresco showing the Last Judgement, with further pictorial frescos embellishing the panels and vaults rising to the dome, as well as the dome itself. Flanking the altarpiece to both the rear and sides of the chancel are ornate niches with canopies and pedestals, each containing an almost life-sized painted sculpture of a saint or martyr. Above, inscribed in a frieze, are the texts "THEY SHALL MAKE ME A SANCTUARY" and "I WILL DWELL IN THE MIDST OF THEM".

Nave

The nave comprises three bays formed with ornamented round arches supported on paired Ionic columns flanking broad piers. Each pier has a pair of highly ornamented pilasters framing a niche with a statue and a fresco above. The pilasters support an entablature extending into a fourth bay occupied by the western gallery. Above is the clerestory, which has two segmentally headed windows per bay, the windows being square with margin glazing. Between the windows are relief panels. The ornate ceiling has broad panelled borders flanking a central coffered barrel vault supported by king posts with scroll brackets rising from cross beams.

West End

The west end has a full-width gallery supported on cast-iron posts with traceried brackets. The gallery front is panelled with painted decoration. On the north side of the gallery is an organ. Beneath the gallery is a canted, part-glazed timber internal porch.

North Aisle

The north aisle has a panelled coved ceiling, with pilastered walls featuring a double cornice and a dado. Below the dado rail the walls are painted in imitation of multi-coloured marble panelling; above, the walls imitate marble ashlar. The east end has a fielded eight-panel door and above it a segment-headed stained glass window with an enriched surround. The west end has a pair of doors with stained glass panels.

South Aisle

The south aisle is similar to the north aisle but additionally features high-level stained glass windows set in eared architraves, doors to a vestry, a small projection forming a Lady Chapel, statues both in a niche and set on a bracket, as well as three sets of canted timber panelled confessionals. At the east end, instead of a doorway and window, there is a narrow side chapel to the Sacred Heart.

Sacred Heart Chapel

This chapel has a dome with skylight and a half-domed apse beyond, filled by the altar supporting a figure of the Sacred Heart with a fresco of attendant angels on the wall behind. Further frescos adorn the upper wall panels and domes. The chapel is framed by Corinthian pilasters.

Lady Chapel

The Lady Chapel takes the form of an apse projecting south from the south wall of the church, framed by a moulded arch rising from engaged Ionic columns. It is top-lit by a lantern dome and has a marble altar with a figure of Our Lady and Child above. The walls are richly finished with mosaic, frescos and painted mouldings.

Crypt

The crypt extends beneath the approximate footprint of the church and consists of brick vaulted passages flanked by ossuary chambers which are now sealed. The crypt is not ornamented but includes some memorial stones.

Presbytery

The presbytery has been formed by modifying a pair of early 19th-century town houses. These retain some original period features, the best survivals being within the disused basement rooms.

Fittings

Fittings include marble altars, the High Altar featuring scenes from the life of St Charles Borromeo; an ornate octagonal timber pulpit with painted panels depicting saints, with a suspended canopy above forming a sound board; a carved stone font that, in comparison with the rest of the church, is relatively modestly ornamented; a seated statue of St Charles Borromeo set on a pedestal; and a triptych war memorial panel listing the dead of the First and Second World Wars flanking an icon of Our Lady and Child.

Subsidiary Items

The church and presbytery are separated from the street by a rendered and coped boundary wall topped with iron lattice railings with lattice piers. Similarly ornamented iron grills protect the light-wells to the basement. The metal ramp behind the boundary wall that leads to the right side door was installed after 2014.