Mount St Mary's College Memorial Chapel

Mount St Mary's College Memorial Chapel

A school memorial chapel built between 1922 and 1924 to the designs of Adrian Gilbert Scott. The chapel commemorates mountaineers who gave their lives in the First World War and Second World War.

The chapel is cruciform in plan, with a canted antechapel to the west end, an octagonal-plan dome and lantern at the crossing, an octagonal-plan stair tower to the exterior of the south-west corner of the transept, a canted sanctuary to the east end with attached rectangular-plan chapels to the north and south, a rectangular-plan sacristy south of the south transept, and a rectangular-plan range south of the nave containing a corridor, chapels and confessionals. The chapel is attached to the school at its south-west corner, at the north end of the Long Gallery.

The walls are constructed of yellow brick, laid in four courses of stretchers with one course of headers, with yellow Hornton limestone dressings. A red-brick plinth runs along the north and west elevations, which provide access to the basement, while the east and south elevations have Hornton limestone dressings to the plinth. The chapel is a double-height structure with hipped roofs to the nave, transepts, sanctuary, side chapels and sacristy, and a lean-to roof to the corridor south of the nave, all covered in double Roman concrete tiles. The roofs of the octagonal dome, lantern and stair tower are clad with copper. The side chapels have open segmental pediments to their north and south elevations.

Windows are varied in design: the nave and sanctuary have round clerestory windows (oculi) over flat-arched windows; the transepts and side chapels have round-arched windows; the range of confessionals and side chapels have round-arched fanlight windows; and the sacristy, corridor and antechapel have flat-arched windows. All windows are metal-framed.

The antechapel or narthex at the west end is entered from the south from the north end of the Long Gallery. The round-ended antechapel has plain cornice and wood-panelled walls incorporating a plain entablature with a dentilled cornice, over blind panels flanked by carved fluted pilasters. A painted inscription runs round the room: 'THIS CHAPEL WAS BUILT TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF MOUNTAINEERS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR US IN THE WAR OF 1914-1918. MAY THEIR NAMES RECORDED HERE BE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF SACRIFICE.' The blind panels bear the painted names of Old Mountaineers who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The original brown and white ruboleum floor covering survives, with a symmetrical sunburst and margined design.

The main chapel has rendered and painted barrel-vaulted roofs and walls, with a gilded classical frieze to the base of the dome and a Hornton limestone entablature with a gilded classical frieze directly under the clerestory oculi. The chapel retains its original gilded stations of the cross, though these were altered in the late twentieth century with the addition of a segmental pediment and application of a new picture over the original. The walls at low level are wood panelled, with a plain entablature bearing a gold-painted inscription from the Magnificat over a dentilled cornice, plain panelling flanked by fluted pilasters, and three doors to confessionals on the south wall with segmental pediments. The original floor covering of brown and white ruboleum survives, laid out in a symmetrical grid-like pattern. The west end of the nave has a round limestone arch and balustrade to the choir gallery, over a limestone door surround with a segmental pediment and double-leaf wood-panelled doors from the antechapel. Throughout the chapel, door, window, arch and radiator surrounds are carved of Hornton limestone, with a high proportion of wood-panelled doors surviving.

The sanctuary has a three-stepped marble floor with symmetrical black and white margins, and a three-stepped marble platform to the round east end. The reredos at the centre of the east end consists of a round arch with cream marble pilasters, containing a white marble crucifix emerging in high relief from a blind arch of white 'mareuil' limestone bearing the words 'ECCE HOMO', and a background of dark red 'rosso antico' marble. The black-and-white marble high altar and tabernacle were modelled on originals by Della Robbia at SS Apostoli, Florence, with a matching late-twentieth century forward altar. A late-twentieth century lectern stands at the south-west corner of the sanctuary, with carved pilasters matching the early-twentieth century wall panelling.

To the north and south of the sanctuary, accessed via arches from the transepts and sanctuary, is a round-ended side chapel with a vaulted ceiling, figurative sculpture, marble altar elevated on a step, and marble floor. The north chapel is dedicated to Notre Dame des Victoires. South of the south side chapel and south transept, the sacristy retains its wood panelling and integrated cupboards, parquet floors and carved limestone water font. The parquet flooring continues throughout the south corridor, from which there are three wood-panelled doors to side chapels, now used as offices or storage rooms with altars boxed in. The organ gallery is accessed from the entrance to the antechamber, with a concrete stair and plain metal handrail, and contains an organ dated 1989 and movable benches, both replaced following a fire in the late twentieth century.

The interior floors of the antechapel and chapel are covered in ruboleum, with marble flooring to the sanctuary, and parquet flooring to the sacristy and corridor. The interior walls are rendered and painted with wood panelling to the lower level, and Hornton limestone dressings.