Church Of St Paul

The Church of St Paul is a parish church located on Brackley Road. The nave was built in 1868, and the tower was completed in 1872, designed by architects Smith and Williams. In 1884, a porch, clergy vestry, and choir vestry were added by Sydney J Bartlett, an architect from Kirkdale, Beckenham. An extension on the south side of the church was added by Gordon Cook in the 1960s. The church is designed in the English Decorated style and constructed from Kentish ragstone with a slate roof.

The nave consists of five bays and includes north and south aisles, a chancel, and a southwest tower topped with a steeple. The tower has three stages and is crowned by a broached stone spire featuring lucarnes. The bell stage has two double trefoliated openings with louvred sections, while the second stage has trefoliated lancets on each face, topped with a clock. The first stage includes a trefoliated opening and a turret. The entrance features a pointed arched doorcase with colonnettes, and the doorcase is adorned with floral decorations in the spandrels. The tower is supported by angle buttresses.

The west window is decorated with tracery and trefoliated lancets, along with a six-pointed star. The aisles have five windows with double trefoliated designs and drip-mouldings, separated by buttresses. The chancel has similar windows, and the large west window was replaced after sustaining war damage in 1940, designed by W Aiken of Sutton.

Inside the nave, there is a stone arcade supported by round piers, and the roof is of an arch-braced type, resting on stone corbels. The original wooden pews and an octagonal carved pulpit on a marble base are notable features. The alabaster chancel wall, designed by Messrs Bartlett around 1884, has a metal screen that has been missing since the Second World War. The font was replaced in 1913 with a copy of Thorwaldsen's font, which was originally carved in Rome in 1823 by Evelyn Hellicar. The aisles feature arch-braced roofs, and the north chancel aisle contains two windows by Clayton and Bell, depicting "The Good Shepherd" and "The Light of the World." Additionally, the south wall of the chancel retains a fragment of a mural decoration by Clayton and Bell illustrating "The Marriage Feast at Cana."