Church of St Mary, South Ruislip, with boundary walls and southern courtyard cloister

Church of St Mary, South Ruislip

This is a church with a north chapel and a southern walled courtyard with cloister, built between 1957 and 1959 to designs by Laurence Edward King. The structural engineering was carried out by Ove Arup and Partners.

The church structure consists of an exposed reinforced-concrete frame with brick infill panels, supporting a folded-slab roof. Both the church and north chapel have copper sheet roofs.

The main body of the church comprises a nave with projecting side aisles and an apsidal east end with an ambulatory. The narthex provides access to a choir gallery at the west end. A side chapel is positioned to the north of the chancel. To the south is a walled courtyard with a covered walkway, connecting to the south wing which contains parish rooms, the sacristy and vestry.

The principal west elevation, facing The Fairway, features a large west window with clear glazing positioned above a striking 24-foot-high Portland stone crucifixion sculpture, carved in situ by Brian Asquith. Below this are panels of Westmoreland green slate and central timber doors with Greek cross windows, sheltered by a projecting canopy. Because of the proximity of Northolt Aerodrome, a tower was not permitted, so instead a small latticed polygonal spire rises above the west end.

The south, north and east elevations are principally of brick, divided into bays by concrete piers. A series of long narrow windows of clear glass pierce the nave from the level of the edge beams to the springing point of the roof vault, which has a folded form creating a shallow ridged clerestory continuing through to the apsidal east end with stained glass. Each section of the roof has a copper outlet discharging to a reinforced-concrete gutter around three sides, with four downpipes discharging onto the aisle roofs. The side chapel has an apsidal east end and an external entrance with replacement uPVC doors on its south elevation.

To the south side of the nave and apse at the east end is a single-storey flat-roofed block housing the vestry, utility rooms and WCs, built of brick with metal-framed windows.

Internally, the main west entrance leads to a porch and then a narthex with a central stone font designed by Brian Asquith. The narthex is separated from the church by a part-glazed screen with inset fretted wooden panels depicting the Madonna and Child by John Hayward. Two sets of stairs flank the entrance, giving access to the choir gallery, with a further cast-iron spiral stair on the north side rising through to the bellcote. The main body of the church is lofty and light, with tall concrete piers supporting a ridged vault incorporating the shallow clerestory. The portal frame is expressed internally, dividing the nave into seven bays of concrete panels with narrow vertical windows of clear glazing. The flooring is mostly parquet blocks, except for the altar and entrance, which are tiled. Original fitted pews occupy two sections in the nave and choir gallery. The side aisles to the north and south step out beyond the portal frame, continuing through to the ambulatory with exposed brick walls. At the east end is a faceted apse with the altar placed centrally and a ciborium in place of a reredos. The ciborium is formed of four small hyperbolic parabolas made by Morgan & Partners Ltd of Cowley. Above the high altar is a hanging rood designed and painted by John Hayward. On the north side of the nave is a painted and gilded Madonna and Child sculpture affixed to a pier, also by John Hayward. On the south side are confessional booths; these are indicated on the original plans though not specified as confessionals, possibly owing to ecclesiastical sensitivities regarding the practice of formal confession at the time of construction.

The north chapel has an engraved stone altar on a stone plinth at its apsidal east end, with exposed timber joists and purlins to the shallow roof pitch.

To the south side of the altar is the sacristy, vestry, parish rooms and WCs, accessible either directly from the church or via the covered cloister link. The room at the north-west end of the block is marked on the plan as a flower room and retains its original worktop and basin. The doors and fitted cupboards throughout this block are original.

The carpentry and joinery, including the chancel rails, ciborium and fretted panels, were executed by Morgan & Partners Ltd. The furnishings and decoration of the ciborium were commissioned from Faith Craft. Most fittings, including the hanging pendant lights by F H Pride, together with doors, cupboards and internal screens survive largely as originally installed. The organ in the west choir gallery is by J W Walker & Sons, a two-manual instrument with a pedal keyboard and twenty-eight stops, based on that in St Barnabas, Kentish Town, London.

Behind the high altar, in the polygonal east end, are five high-level stained-glass chancel windows by Royal College of Art student Keith New. These were designed in 1958 while New was also working on the windows for Coventry Cathedral, and installed a year later. The glass is in deep reds, yellows, purples and oranges in an abstract design, graduating to pale yellow, blue and grey in the leaded glass of the clerestory windows above the nave. Reading from left to right or north to south, the windows depict in abstract form the Nativity, the Crucifixion, the Coronation and Assumption (together in the centre), Pentecost and the Annunciation; the symbolism derived from Rudolf Koch's 'Book of Signs', which also inspired the nave window artists at Coventry Cathedral. In the side chapel to the left of the chancel are small jewel-like glazed triangles of bright reds, greens and blues, set in pierced concrete blocks, designed by Royal College of Art graduates R D King and R A Sullock.

The church is connected on its south side to the vicarage (not forming part of this listing) by a covered walkway which returns to give access to the vestry block and create a small courtyard garden. The vicarage garden is screened by a wall of honeycomb brickwork. A freestanding sculpted crucifix, of unknown designer, was added after completion of the church and is positioned in the centre of the courtyard garden bounded by the covered walkway. Low-set brick boundary walls front The Fairway.