Roman Catholic Church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus

Roman Catholic Church of St Theresa of the Child Jesus

This Roman Catholic church was built between 1958 and 1960 to designs by John Rochford in a modern Byzantine style. The attached presbytery is not of special interest.

The church is constructed with a reinforced concrete frame, externally clad with pale orange brick and artificial stone, featuring artificial stone dressings and copper and felt-covered concrete roofs. The building is aligned north-south, using liturgical rather than cardinal points throughout.

The plan comprises a wide, aisled nave with side confessionals and chapels, an apsidal domed sanctuary, and a low circular west tower containing a porch, choir gallery and pipe organ. A small circular baptistry is attached to the south-west corner, and a link corridor connects the church to the presbytery.

Exterior features include the circular west tower facing the road, which contains the main entrance doorway with a segmental-arched head, moulded artificial stone jambs and voussoirs with a giant keystone, and timber fielded-panel double doors. Above the doorway is a statue of St Theresa carved by Philip Lindsey Clark. Around the apex of the tower are square framed apertures with louvres, topped by a conical copper roof with a metal cross finial. Flanking the tower on the stone-clad ground floor are three segmental-arched lancet windows on each side; above these are pairs of tall segmental-arched windows lighting the west end of the nave.

The nave roof consists of seven transverse segmental vaults with flat roofs at the east and west ends. Seven nave bays have tall segmental-arched windows with stone frames on both north and south elevations, with recessed tall tripartite windows in stone panels lighting the sanctuary.

The projecting ground floor has flat roofs at the west end on both sides, a wider four-bay section at the east end with transverse segmental vaults, and a flat-roofed section wrapping round the apsidal sanctuary with a flat-roofed link block at the south-east corner to the presbytery. The flat-roofed sections have single or tripartite windows with segmental-arched heads and rectangular frames, while the vaulted bays have clerestory windows. The south elevation features a small attached circular baptistry with a ring of clerestory windows and zinc-clad conical roof. A projecting flat-roofed porch with recessed timber fielded-panel double doors serves the third bay of the vaulted-roof section, with a further recessed doorway to the link block. The north elevation has a recessed doorway with timber fielded-panel double doors and angled side walls at the west end.

The apsidal sanctuary extends above roof level as a circular drum with a copper dome. The drum displays twelve vertical panels of low-relief sculptural figures of the Twelve Apostles by Alan and Sylvia Rochford, separated by brick panels and clerestory windows overlooking the nave roof. Some of the sculptural figures are badly weathered.

The interior comprises a seven-bay nave with plastered walls, transverse segmental-vaulted ceiling with concrete beams painted red, and segmental-arched arcades with cylindrical piers also painted red. The aisles and side chapels are brick-faced with transverse segmental vaulting. The aisles contain built-in confessionals and store rooms with horizontal fielded-panel and glazed doors. Set into the brick walls are square low-relief stone panels of the Stations of the Cross by Philip Lindsey Clark. Wooden altar statues are also by Philip Lindsey Clark and painted by Michael Clark.

Church flooring consists of panels of coloured terrazzo: the nave has black and white panels in a star motif with plain tiles under the pews; the north aisle has brown and white panels; the south aisle has blue and white panels. At the east end is a large semi-circular chancel arch springing from free-standing cylindrical piers, with a rectangular pulpit cantilevered from the left pier, featuring a panelled timber front. The apsidal sanctuary is raised by four steps, with a further step to the stone tabernacle stand. The stone altar has been brought forward, with a statue of Christ the King by Michael Clark hanging in front of the curtained reredos.

The side chapels of St Theresa to the north aisle and Our Lady of Mount Carmel to the south aisle both have timber panelled testers and are separated from the sanctuary by pierced wrought-iron screens.

The west narthex has hexagonal and triangular black and white terrazzo floor panels and central half-glazed double doors into the nave with half-glazed screens to each side bearing decorative wrought-iron grilles. On the east side is the baptistry doorway with decorative pierced wrought-iron gates. The circular baptistry has a green star terrazzo floor and a ribbed ceiling. A curved cantilevered staircase with painted iron balustrade in the narthex leads to the choir gallery above. The choir gallery has a balustrade with similar decorative pierced wrought-ironwork. At the centre is a pipe organ by J W Walker and Son dating from 1960, with a circular cantilevered stair curving round behind it up the tower.