Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph

The Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph in Wembley is a post-war church built between 1955 and 1957 to designs by Reynolds and Scott. It combines a loosely neo-Georgian style with Romanesque influences. The presbytery and hall, located to the east of the church, are not included in the listing. The walls are faced with brown brick beneath a slate roof, with dressings to the principal north elevation in reconstituted stone.

The church is aligned on a north-south axis and not liturgically orientated. Its plan comprises a tower at the principal north elevation with a narthex below, a wide central nave flanked by processional aisles, from which projects a baptistery, a large side chapel, confessionals and sacristies. There are short transepts and a rectangular sanctuary with a semi-circular apse.

The exterior is dominated by a broad north tower which spans almost the full width of the building and is reminiscent of the work of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. In neo-Georgian style, it is clasped by slightly projecting corner piers which frame a soaring full-height flush panel in reconstituted stone, containing a double-height semi-circular headed window with classical detailing. Below this is a rectangular portal with a stepped architrave and a tall keystone, fitted with original timber panelled doors. The belfry is articulated by an arcade of round-headed arches and topped by a hipped roof. Tall windows to the east and west return walls are beneath single-storey parapetted porches, lit by pairs of round-headed windows and accessed at the east and west respectively. All remaining windows feature projected tiled impost and keyblock detailing with brick voussoirs. The nave has side elevations of three wide bays, the first and third of which advance and have hipped roofs. The central bays feature three large round-arched windows over the low-level flat-roofed aisles. To the south is a semi-circular apse.

The interior is spacious and light, representing a striking exercise in geometry and the use of round arches, influenced by Byzantine revival. The nave is covered by three large pendentive saucer domes of the type favoured by Sir John Soane, creating a series of wide arches arranged in succession that lead the eye to the sanctuary at the south end. The passage aisles are largely screened from the nave and accessed from the central bays via a low triple arcade of Romanesque-style stone columns; the central sections have flat ceilings. At the north and south ends are tall round-arched openings to the gallery over the narthex and the sanctuary respectively; the sanctuary has a second arch located over the former position of the high altar, now containing the tabernacle. The first and third bays of the nave have similar openings to the side chapels and short transepts. A sunken former baptistery, now St Anthony's shrine, is accessed off the first bay of the east aisle and has a mosaic floor with wave motif. Off the centre of the east aisle is a rectangular side chapel. The sanctuary has a segmental ceiling with twin round arches under triple windows on each side. The apse is lit by stained glass windows. The sanctuary has been reordered with a simple modern stone altar set to the front of it. Walls are generally plastered and painted over a brick plinth, floors are linoleum tile with a chequered pattern to the aisles, and the sanctuary floor is a combination of travertine tiles and mosaic work. Stained glass windows are restricted to the large side chapel, designed by M Sieciechowicz (1960s), Opus (1998) and Mark Williams (2005).