Roman Catholic Church of The Holy Ghost and St Stephen and attached Presbytery

The Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Ghost and St Stephen was built in 1903 to designs by architect-priest Canon A J C Scoles, in a stylised version of the Early English style. A presbytery, also designed by Scoles in a loose Perpendicular Gothic style, is attached to the south.

CHURCH

The roof is covered in red tiles over the main roof and side aisles. The principal façade of both church and presbytery is of Flemish bonded orange-red brick with Portland stone dressings. Secondary elevations are of buff London stock brick.

The plan is longitudinal, comprising a six-bay nave with aisles and clerestory, accessed via a narthex to the western bay with the organ loft over. The two-bay, square-plan sanctuary to the east is flanked by a Lady Chapel to the north and a Sacred Heart Chapel to the south. A series of shallow recesses off the north aisles contain shrines, baptistery and confessionals. The presbytery adjoins to the south and is accessed from within the church via the sacristy.

The façade is largely symmetrical and is triple-gabled. Fenestration is varied, including foiled circular windows to the aisles and sanctuary, twinned lancets in the clerestory and two pairs of twinned plate tracery lights in the west wall with a foiled circle over them, flanking a statue of St Stephen in a crocketted statuary niche over a heavily foliated base. In the east wall is a circular window containing four quatrefoils. There are three doorways at the west end with tympana depicting (left to right) the Annunciation, Our Lady seated in front of an adoring host, and the martyrdom of St Stephen. Between the pair of windows in the centre is a standing figure of St Stephen beneath a canopy.

Internally, the church is plastered and painted a very pale yellow. The interior is distinguished by fine wall paintings in the sanctuary, recently restored and in the style of Nathaniel Westlake. The arcades and clerestory are quite tall, creating a generously scaled, lofty space. The nave has octagonal piers with double-chamfered arches. Over the nave is a five-sided roof, divided into square panels by simple ribs. The sanctuary roof is keeled and painted with stars, and the aisle roofs are four-sided.

The visual focus of the church is the east wall of the sanctuary, which has a rich display of arcading above which is a monstrance throne. The flat surfaces are all richly decorated with wall paintings, probably dating from the opening of the church or soon after. Above are scenes of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes (north) and the Last Supper (south). The murals are crowned by an angelic host surrounding the monstrance throne and in the apex of the wall is the Dove of the Holy Spirit descending. There are also painted and gilded saints in the arcade which more closely resemble the style of N H J Westlake: from the left, St John Fisher, St Thomas More, Our Lady, St Joseph, St Mildred and St Edward the Confessor. Extensive use is made of marble in the Lady Chapel, sanctuary and shrine of the Sacred Heart at the east end of the south aisle. The west bay of the nave is occupied by a glazed-in narthex with a repository on the south side and a gallery over.

Fixtures and fittings include a memorial pulpit of travertine, divided into panels with painted relief figures depicting English Martyrs; an altar with columns made up of various marbles. The altar rails are intact to the sanctuary and side chapels, constructed in various marbles and alabaster. The floor of the Lady Chapel is richly treated in marble panels. There are shrines to St Anthony, St Theresa and St Joseph in the north aisle, and St Patrick and St Stephen in the south aisle. The baptistery remains intact at the west end of the north aisle; it contains a richly carved alabaster font on a base of clustered shafts, and a statue of St John the Baptist. A stained glass window in the Lady Chapel by Veronica Whall, 1948, depicts the Virgin. The east window in the sanctuary (1906) and the west window of the north aisle (1905) are good, conventional work by E Stanley Watkins of Ealing. A modern mosaic of the head of Christ is at the west end of the south aisle. At the west end of the north aisle is a roundel mosaic depicting St Peter. The Stations of the Cross are conventional carved timber.

PRESBYTERY

The attached presbytery is of four storeys over a basement and in four bays, and is detailed as the church with red brick walls and Portland stone dressings to the principal façade.

The façade has two-light mullioned and transomed windows within flush chamfered stone architraves, apart from a prominent five-light window lighting the principal ground floor reception room. Ground floor windows are surmounted by cusped top lights. The ground floor openings are linked by a continuous string course serving as a hood and label mould. The entrance is off-centre and is set back within a chamfered pointed-arched opening, framing an oak plank door with stop-end chamfered top- and side-lights. It is accessed from street level by a flight of concrete steps. The secondary elevations are in London stock brick and are lit by timber sliding sash windows.

Internally, the layout appears to be generally intact. Detailing is plain in character, with a red tiled floor to the front porch and stair hall, and some remaining original joinery including four-panelled timber doors and closed string stairs with simple balusters and handrail. Cornices are simple and are found in the principal rooms only, along with picture rails. An original chimneypiece remains intact to the main reception room, comprising a lugged moulded surround beneath a pulvinated frieze and mantel shelf, though the opening is boarded over.