Parish Church Of St Andrew And St George

TL 22 SW STEVENAGE ST GEORGES WAY

733/6/10007 Parish Church of St Andrew and St George

II

Church. 1956-60. Seely and Paget. Reinforced concrete frame with precast concrete flint-faced wall panels, buff brick to narthex and copper covered barrel roofs. Traditional plan, - a rectangular, aisled space with the altar against the east wall. The church is raised up over ancillary rooms, some used by the town museum. Steps up to central entrance in single storeyed brick narthex, beneath triple segmental barrel roofs. Tall nave with lower aisles. Concrete flying buttresses connect the aisle walls to the clerestory. East and west walls of main space are fully glazed (the east with stained glass, the rest with plain plate glass). Windows are divided vertically and horizontally by white-painted frame and more delicate glazing bars. Continuous clerestory band of vertical lights with cyncopated glazing pattern. Narrow slit windows to aisles. Tower circular in plan, comprising a reinforced concrete frame with six uprights and five stages plus a spire, formed by the convergence of the upright members. A concrete spiral staircase rises up the centre, having a light and simple metal balustrade. Inside the church each bay is defined by two intersecting hyperbolic paraboloid arches in exposed reinforced concrete, and arches also rise from the same piers to encompass the clerestory within each bay. The barrel vaulted ceilings are lined in varnished timber plywood sheets and there is exposed brown brick to left and right of the sanctuary, which forms a narrow easterly projection and is lined with slender fluted columns of dark red colour. The original altar remains in situ against this background in the sanctuary, which is raised on three steps, but another altar has been erected in the forward position on a new platform. Moulded timber pulpit raised on a `wine glass' foot. Font at west end of central aisle is a concave-sided shape in timber with dolphins supporting spun steel bowl in a moulded timber holder. Moulded timber pews. Rich stained glass to east end in a semi-abstract manner, centring on a red cross. This church is a focal point in Stevenage and is notable especially for its dramatic structural form.

Listing NGR: TL2403924093