John Keble Church

The following building shall be added:

TQ 29 SW CHURCH CLOSE

5/34 John Keble Church

II

Church. 1936, by D F Martin Smith. Concrete frame clad in stock brick; flat concrete roofs. Nave and sanctuary in main body of church with projecting ranges housing north and south aisles, west tower, and similar ranges surrounding sanctuary which house vestry, offices and Lady Chapel. Modern Movement style. 3-light east window with concrete lintel over raised brick architrave and square brick mullions framing metal casements; similar 2-light windows to sides of one-bay sanctuary and to 3-bay nave aisles. Porches in west angles of nave and aisles each have panelled double doors. Plain concrete coping to sanctuary and aisles and splayed cornice to main taller body of nave. West tower has small 2-light windows set in raised concrete architraves; west elevation has similar 3-light window above panel, inscribed with phoenix and the name JOHN KEBLE,which is splayed inwards above recessed bay with grid-like 20-light concrete- framed window; flat hood above panelled double doors; louvred belfry surmounted by mosaic copper cross and ball covered in gold leaf. Interior: white plastered walls; sanctuary floor of cream-coloured artificial stone; fine blue and gold mosaic panel with central dove to sanctuary ceiling; tall wrought-iron candelabra; triple sedilia and two pulpits. Circular oak font with projecting wrought-iron candelabra; west porch (beneath tower) is partitioned off by refined 'stripped Perpendicular' screen with mullioned upper stage above panelled lower stage; stairs to gallery above porch. Nave exhibits the first use in this country of the 'Diagrid' roofing system whereby the octagonal concrete roof is filled in by diagonally-intersecting beams with coloured ceiling boards to infill panels; this saved 40% on normal construction costs. Its good design and cheap cost made John Keble Church a very influential design: in 1951, Knopp-Fisher's The Future of Church Design held it as a sensible prototype for post-war church architecture. (Incorporated Church Building Society, Fifty Modern Churches, 1947, pp 34-7; Architecture Illustrated, November 1936, pp 179-181).

Listing NGR: TQ2044592094