Christ Church

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TQ 3572 30/237

SOUTH ROAD SE23 Christ Church

TQ 3572 30/237

II

Church, begun 1852 and built in three stages. Designed by Ewan Christian in the revived Decorated style. Nave, chancel and south aisle 1852-4. North aisles and vestry completed 1862. West tower and spire completed 1885. Kentish Ragstone with Bath stone dressings. Clay tile roof Plan: west tower and spire, nave of five bays with clerestory, aisles and south porch; chancel with south porch, north vestry and organ chamber.

EXTERIOR: Tower divided externally into four stages. Angle buttresses at the corners above a moulded plinth which reach up to the tower. West doorway: moulded arch and plate tracery. West window of three lights with trefoiled heads to the main lights and a tracery circle containing three trefoils.

Tower: Pairs of two-light openings at Belfry stage with trefoiled heads, and tracery quatrefoils in each face, the hoods linked by carved foliate stops. Recessed timber louvres. Corbel table above from which broach spire rises. Four octagonal pinnacles at each corner; tall, narrow lucarnes on principal faces of the spire. Aisles have three-light windows in their west walls. The bays of the aisles are marked by low buttresses and have alternate two- and three- light windows.

Clerestory windows: each of three equal lights with a quatrefoil above each within a rectangular surround. Chancel:lower than nave. Large five-light east window with four equal lights and taller central light. Circles containing trefoils above side pair of lights, larger circle containing five trefoils above middle light. South chapel of one bay, with two-light window and arched doorway in south wall; three-light window in east wall. North vestry, three-light east window.

INTERIOR. The two westernmost bays of nave have had rooms inserted in 1970 by Laurence King. Remaining arcades have chamfered arches carried on alternate octagonal and round pillars with carved capitals. Arch braced wooden roof with carved corbels. Floor: stone paviours with red and black tiles at the east end of the nave.

Chancel: raised two steps above level of nave and paved. Chancel divided by chamfered arches from south chapel and north organ chamber. Bare walls following re-ordering of 1970.

Fittings: no reredos or lectern; pulpit 1903; original font on square base with circular oak cover at west end. Stained glass: east window - three-lights depicting The Crucifixion, flanked by Christ and Mary Magdalene in the Garden and Supper at Emmaus, probably by Henry Holiday 1883; other glass - by Powell in the south chapel, and in the north aisle by Comper, 1936.

Listing NGR: TQ3575072819