Roman Catholic Church of St Michael

Roman Catholic Church of St Michael

A Roman Catholic church built in 1967–8 to a design by Desmond Williams & Associates, with Anthony Ward as job architect. The building incorporates artwork and furnishings by Robert Brumby, Sean Compton and Bronwen Gordon.

The church is constructed of brown brick with a steel roof frame. The plan is circular, with a narthex and U-shaped tower attached to the north, a projecting chapel to the south-west, and a rectangular sacristy attached to the south-east.

The walls of the tall, drum-shaped building are punctuated by projecting narrow buttresses framing slim, full-height windows. The internal recesses for shrines and confessionals are fully expressed externally by further strips of brick. The irregular, flattened and channelled cone-shaped roof is clad in lead and has a reversed clerestory.

The low, flat-roofed narthex to the north side is followed behind by a tall U-shaped open bell-tower. Attached to the wall above the entrance is a wrought bronze figure of St Michael by Sean Compton. A later added flat-roofed walkway attaches the narthex to the adjacent parish hall, which is not of special interest.

The plain, single-storey sacristy attached to the south side has a flat roof with three large windows to the rear.

Internally, the dark brick walls of the nave are pierced by narrow, full-height abstract stained glass windows by Bronwen Gordon in strong shades of blue, purple, yellow, red, orange and green. Recently, heating panels have been introduced, fixed on a rail along the entire length of the internal wall. The cast reinforced concrete ceiling resembles a large folded paper canopy and is suspended from the roof with a deep circular light well.

The nave is divided into a fan-shaped seating area facing a raised, U-shaped chancel. Behind the stone table altar, the reredos is formed by a large, full-height abstract ceramic relief by Robert Brumby. A resin bronze and timber crucifix by Sean Compton is suspended above the altar. Immediately to the right of the altar is an open, circular-shaped sunken sanctuary with a stone font by Robert Brumby at its centre and an abstract bronze relief to the front. This is believed to be one of the earliest examples of a completely open baptismal area set right next to the altar, rather than positioned near the narthex or within a separate baptistery. A photograph from 1968 in the Catholic Building Review shows a different font, suggesting the current one may not be original. However, it is stated that Brumby confirmed the current font was designed by him at the time, and it is possible the font had not been completed when the 1968 photograph was taken. Attached to the wall above the adjacent, recessed Lady Chapel is a resin copper Madonna and Child by Sean Compton. Three further recesses along the walls house confessionals with flush vertical timber doors.

Both the sacristy and narthex retain most of their original fittings and fixtures, notably the bespoke timber built-in furniture. In the corner of the narthex, a later-inserted door opens to an open-string concrete winder stair in the tower, allowing access to a suspended concrete gallery with further seating and a raised organ.