Roman Catholic Church of St Peter, Gorleston

Roman Catholic Church of St Peter, Gorleston

A Roman Catholic parish church constructed in 1939 to the designs of Eric Gill and J Edmund Farrell.

The church is built entirely of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with a pantile roof. It follows a cruciform basilican plan with a Lady Chapel to the south of the chancel and a sacristy to the north. The altar stands centrally beneath the crossing tower.

The exterior is characterised by broad gables in red brick, each featuring a single pointed Diocletian window with brick mullions. The west elevation contains a projecting gabled baptistery with its own small window. The main west wall has one large window and buttresses that express the position of the aisle arcades; there are no other windows directly into the nave. The west gable is flanked by a porch on the left and a confessional on the right. The porch contains an arcade of two-centred arches infilled with glazing in 1992. Its gabled north face features incised brickwork depicting St Peter casting a fishing net over those entering below, with consecration crosses on either side of the archway facing north.

The north and south elevations are largely blank expanses of brickwork except for single windows in the gables and slim buttresses on each transept. The east elevation emphasises the chancel, which steps forward of the gable ends of the Lady Chapel and sacristy, each with a single window. The sacristy door is set within a pointed brick arch and is formed of narrow bead-moulded oak planks, standing beneath a pentice connecting to the presbytery.

Over the crossing is a square lantern tower with gables facing the cardinal points. Each face has a pointed Diocletian window, and the ridges of their roofs meet at a simple metal cross at the centre.

The interior's liturgical focus is the crossing at the heart of the cruciform plan. To the west lies the nave, to the north and south are the transepts, and to the east is further seating. Entry is at the west end of the nave through a now-glazed porch adjoining the north aisle, which contains two polished limestone water stoups. A matching enclosed space on the south side now functions as a confessional.

The nave arcade is two bays long, formed from two-centred arches without moulding or ornament that rise directly from the tiled floor. The exposed roof structure has tie beams and scissor-braced trusses. Beneath the large western window, three steps below nave level, is a square baptistry lit by its own window. At its centre stands a font: a stone cube on an octagonal stem.

The aisled transepts follow the same pattern as the nave but are each only one bay long. The east wall of the north transept has three doorways: two originally served either side of a confessional (now disused) and one to the sacristy. The priest's door is blocked but the confessional retains its original pine panelling. The east wall of the south transept has a doorway to the garden and an archway leading to the Lady Chapel.

The Lady Chapel features an arcade of two very acute arches joined by an octagonal column with a wide square abacus. It has a stone altar beneath a window depicting Our Lady of Walsingham by Chapel Studios (1994).

The east end is laid out in collegiate fashion with benches facing each other. The east wall has a shelf for the tabernacle and a large stained-glass window by J E Nuttgens depicting Christ the King with the Virgin Mary and St Peter (1963).

At the crossing itself, the corners are cut away to create intersecting arcades, giving the impression that no piers support the tower base. At the heart stands a stepped platform bearing the altar, which incorporates the church's foundation stone and is carved with a Latin inscription by Anthony Foster. Suspended above it is the Rood, Christ the Redeemer, the only artwork here actually produced by Gill himself. The east wall of the crossing tower bears a fresco by Denis Tegetmeier showing (left) Christ's arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and (right) Christ carrying the cross. The upper level of the crossing tower forms a lantern with clear-glazed windows on each wall. The exposed roof shows the intersection of roofs with crossing tie-beams and angled struts.

Tegetmeier's 1962 Stations of the Cross are distributed throughout the church.

The sacristy occupies the north-east corner, lit by a window on the east wall and containing oak joinery. The sink on the north side has a tap in a carved recess of polished limestone, inscribed with a Latin vesting prayer: DA DOMINE VIRTUTEM (Give virtue [to my hands] O Lord).