Church Of St Christopher

Church of St Christopher

Anglican church on Stockingstone Road, Round Green, Luton. Commenced 1936–7 and completed in 1959. Designed by Sir Albert Richardson. The building is constructed of light brown brick, detailed throughout in brick, with a plain tile roof.

The church follows a linear plan, oriented north-east to south-west, with the entrance front at the south-west end (liturgical west). It comprises an entrance vestibule, an undivided nave, north and south aisles, with a chancel and vestries added in 1959.

The exterior features a steeply gabled west front with coupled single doorways with planked doors, set within a wide segmental arch. The doorways are separated by a chamfered brick pillar, which carries a niche housing a statue of St Christopher and the Infant Christ. A stylised wheel window with brick tracery fills the gable apex. The right-hand return to the entrance gable incorporates an integral belfry with three belfry lights and a single bell. The aisles are covered by extensions to the main roof pitch.

The north side wall displays a quasi-arcade of segmentally-arched bays, each containing coupled and recessed two-light mullioned windows separated by plain brick piers. At the junction of nave and chancel stands a tall gabled vent. Within the roof pitch, aligned with the arcade arches, are hipped clerestory dormers with cross window frames and sheet copper cheeks. The south aisle replicates the detail of the north aisle but without the vent. The east end features a steep, wide gable with a pair of pilasters to the centre, framing a narrow single-light east window and rising to support a shallow gabled canopy carrying a slender metal cross finial. Projecting from the east wall are copper sheet-roofed vestries with two-light windows and neo-Georgian doorways and canopies to the north and south side walls.

The interior contains an entrance vestibule with a stair to an organ loft set within a pointed-arched recess above the central segmental-arched entrance into the nave. Twin planked and studded doors with narrow glazed panels feature a central fixed light between them. The spacious, uncluttered nave has a roof supported on wall posts and inclined secondary posts, linked by short spurs at wall plate level. Above these are arch-braced principal rafters, with braces rising to meet and support collar beams that themselves support strutted king posts. These composite pseudo-crucks provide a vernacular, timber-framed setting for the tall, plain pointed chancel arch and the blind arch of the east end. Within the blind arch are doorways to the two rear vestries. The east window contains 1996 stained glass by Peter Archer. Contemporary furnishings include a wooden altar rail, readers' desks, benches and choir benches at the east end, and congregation benches at the west end, all with fielded panelled fronts. A tapered octagonal timber font with a faceted cover and chevron decoration is positioned at the rear of the centre aisle.

The original design for the church included transepts, a choir, and a slender spire. Only the nave and entrance had been completed by the time of the formal opening in June 1937.