Presbytery of St Peter's Church, Gorleston

The presbytery of St Peter's Church, Gorleston was constructed in 1938-1939 to the designs of Eric Gill in partnership with J Edmund Farrell.

The building is constructed entirely of red brick with pantile roof coverings. The plan arranges the principal spaces within the southern half of the house, which faces into the church garden, while the staircase and WCs are housed in a large gabled closet wing that projects to the north.

The exterior is laid in Flemish bond red brick with pitched pantile roofs. The building is two storeys high with attics. A longer range of four bays oriented east-west faces the garden, with a wide gabled closet wing projecting towards Sussex Road on the north side. All windows have been replaced in uPVC.

At the north-west corner, the principal entrance is covered by a pentice (covered way) that connects to the church. The doorway comprises an oak plank door beneath a brick lintel. The pentice is three bays long with a pitched roof that merges with the presbytery roof to form a catslide. Its walls are formed from a broad arcade rising directly from the ground without columns, mirroring those of the church.

The west elevation is gabled with kneelers and is two bays wide. It features two cruciform casement windows at ground floor, one two-light multi-pane casement at first floor, and a multi-pane single-light casement at attic level, all beneath flat gauged brick arches.

The south elevation is the most regular. There are four windows at ground and first floor (cruciform casements at ground, two-light casements at first) and two roof dormers with multi-pane casements four lights in width. Beyond the ridge are two chimney stacks with stepped brick cornices.

The kneelered east gable is two bays wide and attaches to the closet wing. There is a replacement half-glazed door with overlight and a three-light casement at ground floor. Other windows are two-light casements, including one at ground floor of the closet wing, one at first floor and one in the roof dormer of the closet wing, and another in the attic.

The north elevation of the closet wing is another kneelered gable. At ground floor is a doorway with one blocked window on its left and two square windows on the right. At first floor is a large cruciform casement and a smaller single-light multi-pane casement. At attic level, in dark relief brickwork, is the date of completion: 1939.

The interior plan remains intact with many original finishes surviving. These include oak plank doors, quarry tiled floors, pine boarded floors, and original fireplaces (now blocked) with tiled and brick surrounds characteristic of the late 1930s.

The principal interior feature is the staircase, which has an open well, closed string, stick balusters and flat handrail. The entire construction is of oak, traditionally assembled using pegs, mortices and tenons rather than nails or other fixings. The numerous newel posts all terminate in a recurring motif of intersecting barrelled arches. It has been altered at ground floor level with a glazed panel introduced to create a draught lobby.