Church of St Mary, Newington

Church of St Mary, Newington

A parish church built in 1957-1958 by Sir Arthur Llewellyn Smith (1903-1978), designed in a stripped Neo-Classical style. The church is constructed of yellow stock bricks laid in Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings, metal-framed windows, wood and glazed doors, and a copper roof.

The building comprises a four-bay nave with a west organ gallery, south chapel and north congregation vestry, north and south transepts, and an apsidal-ended sanctuary. The sanctuary has a bellcote and is flanked by a clergy vestry with sacristy to the south and a choir vestry to the north.

The west end features a full-height portico with a Portland stone open pediment with a coffered underside, supported on square piers and pilasters. Below this is a porch with slender Portland stone piers and wood and glazed doors with square glazing patterns. Above the porch is a high relief Portland stone carving of the Madonna and Child.

The north and south sides of the nave display triglyph designs in raised brick above the metal-framed windows. Below these are the projecting Lady Chapel and children's chapel, each with four Portland stone piers and wooden entrances at the west end, and four metal casement windows on the north and south sides.

The transepts are pedimented with metal windows, except on the east side where there are no windows. The sanctuary is five-sided with the same pattern of triglyphs above the metal-framed windows, some of which contain stained glass. Below are single-storey vestries with metal-framed windows.

Internally, a western glazed panelled door leads into an open-ended vestibule beneath the organ gallery, which has organ pipes arranged symmetrically and is supported on square piers. The lower parts of the walls have exposed brickwork while the upper parts are rendered. The ceiling features rectangular coffers, with patterns of squares and hexagons over the sanctuary. The north Lady Chapel has three part-glazed aluminium doors with the upper glazed parts etched with crown and lily designs in diamond-shaped panes, whilst the opposite south children's area has a solid wall. The nave retains its original wooden pews, and both nave and transepts have woodblock floors.

The north transept contains a stained glass window depicting figures from the Old Testament. The south transept has a stained glass window with figures and texts from the New Testament, signed H Powell. A hexagonal Portland stone font with a wooden cover stands in the nave. At the south-east edge of the sanctuary is a hexagonal panelled wooden pulpit on a hexagonal Portland stone base, approached up wooden steps with a metal handrail.

The sanctuary has a marble floor of two colours, approached up a step and furnished with wooden rails with turned balusters. Three further steps lead to the panelled wooden altar, which stands below a pedimented Portland stone baldacchino supported on piers. The three central windows contain contemporary stained glass: the central one depicts the Crucifixion, the northern one shows scenes from Christ's life, and the southern one possibly depicts scenes of the Resurrection. Two wooden doors below incorporate stained glass panels, possibly symbolising the water of baptism and the fire of the Holy Spirit.