Roman Catholic Italian Church Of St Peter And Presbytery

CAMDEN

TQ3182SW 798-1/97/262

CLERKENWELL ROAD (North side), No.136, Roman Catholic Italian Church of St Peter

14/05/74,

II*

Includes: No.4 Presbytery to Roman Catholic Italian Church of St Peter BACK HILL. Roman Catholic church. 1862-3. By John Miller Bryson, based on a previous design of 1853 by Francesco Gualandi. Front to Clerkenwell Road with loggia, superstructure and campanile behind by Francis W Tasker, 1891. Exterior of church hidden but of grey stock brick reinforced internally with hoop iron. Red-brick front to Clerkenwell Road has stucco-faced loggia in quattrocento style with two open round arches surmounted by three niches with statues - including St Peter, and upper storey in English Renaissance style with stucco dressings rising to a pediment enclosing papal arms. Loggia interior with vaulted roof and coats of arms above wooden panelled doors and memorials to the First World War and the Arandora Star.

INTERIOR of church has basilican plan based on San Crisogono, Rome, with unfinished nave of six bays, aisles, transepts and three apses facing west. Ionic nave colonnade of stone, painted to resemble marble, carrying entablature surmounted by round-arched tribune (formerly open) and clerestory. Round arches at entrance to chancel and apsidal sanctuary. Baldacchino with marble columns over high altar. Organ at west end on gallery, flanked by piers surmounted by urns installed by Mssrs Walker 1959 incorporating earlier elements. Painted decoration throughout church by two Piedmontese artists, Arnaud and Gauthier, 1885-6, since the 1950s without the surrounding painted architectural framework that formerly enclosed it. Presbytery attached to church also by Bryson but completed by Wylson and Long, 1862-5. Elevation towards Back Hill in Italianate style with stucco dressings. Windows replaced late C20.

Listing NGR: TQ3128682071