Christian Science Church

Christian Science Church

A Christian Science Reading Room, Sunday school and church with ancillary office space and accommodation. The building was constructed in two phases: the Sunday School in the late 1920s and the main church building from 1936 to 1937, designed by architect A Percival Starkey.

The structures are built in brindle brick laid in Flemish bond, with metal-framed casements and plain tile roofing. The church and hall are arranged in an L-shape, with a round-arched colonnade flanking the western side of the Sunday School building and leading from the road to the central entrance hall. The Sunday School building is oriented north-east to south-west with its street frontage on the south-west gable end, while the church sits behind it and runs north-west to south-east.

The Sunday School, which appears to have originally served as the first church on the site, occupies the eastern side of the plot with its gable end facing the street. This taller block has two ranks of windows and is flanked by single-storey, flat-roofed bays. To the left is a round-arched colonnade entrance approached by steps. To the right is a canted single-storey bay lighting the reading room, with a horizontal window in its lower body designed to display Christian literature to passersby. Further right is a doorway with a round-arched head, flanked by casement windows of three lights each. The upper rank of windows features a single central light flanked by triple-light windows, and three grouped lights with round-arched heads in the gable apex. The north-western flank has two wide colonnade arches to the left and a triple-light window without glazing to the right, both opening onto the colonnade with its brick parapet. The upper rank here has clustered groups of four lights with square heads, and the south-east flank shows a similar arrangement.

The later church block to the rear has two principal bays on its south-western front. The single-storey entrance hall continues the colonnade pattern with a round-arched window and ramped parapet. To the left is a two-storey turret with a four-light window with square head at ground floor level and a triple-light window with arched heads at first-floor level, topped by a hipped roof. Upper windows throughout have four lights. The north-west flank is blank, while service rooms along the south-east side have varied fenestration. Round-arches across the building feature square brick voussoirs with wide mortar gaps decorated with conch shells or pebbles, a motif repeated at the gable apexes. Rainwater pipes and decorated hoppers appear to be original.

The front wall facing the street continues the materials and appearance of the church buildings, with quadrant curves flanking the entrances to the colonnade and reading room.

Interior

The church interior features a barrel-vaulted ceiling with decorated ventilation roundels grouped along the centre line. At the centre of the north-western side is a small raised stage with panelled wood surround for readings, with a screen panel and grilles above housing an organ. The south-western wall has a shallow projecting lobby, and glazing includes stained glass lights to the margins. The pews and organ console, apparently original, are of light-coloured oak. At the south-eastern end is a lower projection with curved walls. The floor slopes towards the stage to provide uninterrupted views of the readers' desks from the fixed pews.

The vestibules have terrazzo floors and panelled ceilings with stained glass to some openings and decorative niches. The schoolroom has herring-bone pattern parquet flooring and rear wall panelling. Fitted cupboards with shelves for hymn books line the north-western wall. A suspended ceiling obscures the upper body of the hall, which original architectural drawings show to have roof trusses. The lower parts of windows with stained glass margins remain visible. Seating is not fixed.

Offices and the bookshop retain their original fittings, including shelves, desks, panelled doors and wooden curtain pelmet boxes. Windows throughout are original, with leaded lights and metal frames.