Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart

Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart

The Church of the Sacred Heart was built between 1952 and 1958 from designs by D Plaskett Marshall in a moderne style, reminiscent of the inter-war churches of Cachemaille-Day. The church is not oriented correctly, though this description assumes conventional liturgical orientation with the altar to the east.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with sparing use of Portland stone on parapet copings and other details. The roofs are flat.

The church has an unusual staggered plan that reduces in both height and width in four main stages towards the sanctuary from the blind west wall facing the railway.

The west wall of the nave is windowless and slightly bowed, with the brickwork relieved only by full-height buttress-fins and a ribbed brick parapet. On the north side is a double-height projecting porch with three doors and corresponding large windows all under a canopy. On the south side fronting Knatchbull Road is a smaller porch for a secondary entrance, alongside a tall asymmetrically-placed brick tower with plain corner buttresses and brick louvres to the bell stage. The staggered form of the plan is evident in the side elevations, which each comprise four stepped bays with a large steel-framed multi-pane rectangular clerestory window in each bay. The east end wall is blind.

The entrance doors on either side lead into spacious lobbies with stairs to the west gallery. The main nave space is divided into four wide bays running from east to west. The internal walls are of brown facing bricks and the flooring is of concrete flagstones. The staggered bays are divided by brick piers which taper inwards and rise up to canted brick divisions in the roof space. The nave roof appears to be of reinforced concrete with prominent purlins in each bay. The westernmost bay of the nave holds a wide organ gallery with a boarded front. In the three eastern bays there are four square piers to each bay at lower level, later clad in green Connemara marble and separating the main spaces from side aisles and chapels. The aisles terminate at the east end with chapels of Our Lady and St Joseph. They also contain shrines to the Sacred Heart, St Anthony and St Teresa of Lisieux. The sanctuary is raised and also has narrow aisles, leading off to the sacristies. Its altar, ambo and tabernacle plinth (all post-Vatican II changes) and communion rails are of green Connemara marble, with the communion rails set in Belgian black marble. The limestone and granite sanctuary floor was installed in 2004. At the east end is the original tall, tapering maple reredos set in a shallow niche with a large crucifix attached and canopy above. The original baptistery lies on the north side by the entrance narthex, separated from the western compartment by iron gates. The octagonal marble font with its timber cover was moved, along with its stained glass windows depicting the Baptism of Christ (now backlit), to a central position at the west end in the 1990s.

The Stations of the Cross are placed above the side aisles. These are large rectangular pieces in opus sectile on a gold mosaic background, by Burns Oates. The large steel-framed multi-paned windows contain opaque plain glass unusually set in copper rather than lead subdivisions. The organ is by Rushworth & Dreaper, rebuilt in 1962 and refurbished in 1993. The timber bench seating in the church is original.