St George's Theatre

St George’s Theatre, formerly St George's Church, was built between 1866 and 1867, with the tower added in 1876, by George Truefitt. The building is constructed of Kentish ragstone with dressings of Bath stone and white brick, and has a slate roof. The layout includes a chancel with a round apse and vestries on either side; the nave is circular, narrowing to an octagonal drum at clerestory level; two-storey lobbies are located at the west end, flanked by single-storey porches. A covered way connects the west end to the tower. Additional theatre buildings are situated at the east end, and a small, original building abuts the south side of the chancel, covered by a conical roof.

The chancel and circular walls of the nave have pointed-arched windows with one or two lights, featuring quatrefoil and trefoil tracery. Brick courses are visible at the springing level and elsewhere, along with an eaves cornice of stepped brickwork and brick angled to create a decorative pattern. The clerestory windows are triplets with trefoil heads. At the west end are flat-arched two-light windows, alongside two-light pointed-arched windows with trefoil tracery above. The porches have flat-arched entrances with shouldered arches set back under a segmental-pointed arch; the tympanum is carved with an angel within a roundel, surrounded by foliage. The roofs are covered in fish-scale slates, with a hipped roof over the octagon featuring gablets and a spirelet at the apex.

A single-storey range with an originally open carriage arch connects the church to the tower, which has two surviving stages, with occasional courses of ashlared stone to the first stage. The octagonal stage above features flat-arched openings set within pointed arches, with decorative hipped gables. The original spire is no longer present.

Inside, the space is defined by an octagonal arcade and clerestory, with a circular ambulatory. The arcade consists of a stone base, circular columns composed of iron stanchions clad in terracotta detailed to resemble bricks, with roll mouldings, stilted pointed unmoulded arches of brick, and a stone dripmould with foliage details at the springing. Some clerestory windows retain original fish-scale glazing, while others have been blocked. A shallow timber roof features corbelled trusses. The chancel arch is located within the outer wall of the ambulatory, consisting of paired columns supporting an arch that matches those of the octagonal arcade, flanked by two segmental-pointed arches. An apsidal sanctuary and paired segmental-pointed arches at the west end lead to the lobbies and porches.