Church Of St James The Greater

Church of St James the Greater, London Road

This is a parish church built between 1895 and 1901, with the west front added between 1911 and 1914. It was designed by H L Goddard of Leicester. The building is constructed in brick with ashlar dressings and a Swithland slate roof, following a basilica plan with a semi-circular eastern apse.

The west front is the most elaborate feature. A central projecting section rises from an ashlar base with moulded plinth and rusticated quoins, flanked by ashlar round stair turrets topped with balustrades. The upper floor contains a large round-headed window with a moulded arch and imposts, flanked by Corinthian columns supporting an open and broken pediment with an urn on the bracketed keystone. Above this sits a round-headed ashlar niche with flanking composite columns supporting an open segmental pediment, topped by a cross and a cherub's head. The whole section is crowned by an ashlar open pediment supported on a swagged frieze. On either side are ground-floor doorways with double doors and fanlights within semi-circular headed ashlar door surrounds with moulded arches and imposts. Each doorway is flanked by fluted Corinthian columns supporting an entablature decorated with bucranium and cherub frieze. Above these are brick towers with angle pilaster buttresses and a single tall round-headed window with an ashlar cherub keystone, surmounted by an entablature with pulvinated frieze. Each tower is capped with a square cupola with angle pilaster buttresses supporting an entablature and round arched bell openings, topped with shallow ashlar domes each with a circular dormer on every face crowned by an open segmental pediment. A tall central campanile was originally designed to complete the front but was never built.

The interior comprises an eight-bay nave with a narrow side aisle, a three-bay choir with a Morning Chapel to the south. The nave arcades have seven Matlock sandstone columns on each side, set on ashlar bases with ornate individually moulded terracotta capitals. The round arches and rood pilasters are lined with terracotta. The choir is similarly decorated with terracotta-lined arches. The semi-circular apse features flanking marble columns with large ornate terracotta capitals and is lit by five small round-headed windows with terracotta figures of the apostles between them. Below the windows are frescoes painted around 1935 by Miss Diana Goddard, the architect's daughter, and the vault above is painted with constellations. The reredos was also added around 1935. The aisle walls are decorated with blind arches, each containing an oval window with a figurative terracotta surround, with terracotta corbels between supporting the roof, which is panelled with a central barrel vault. The choir is raised above the rest of the church with a glazed terracotta balustrade featuring angel balusters. The pulpit is supported on glazed terracotta columns and is extensively decorated in similar terracotta work.