Roman Catholic Church of St Gregory the Great and church hall

Roman Catholic Church of St Gregory the Great and Church Hall

This Roman Catholic church was built in 1965 to designs by architect Gerard Goalen, with an associated contemporary hall. A presbytery in similar style stands to the north, attached to the church via a sacristy, but is not included in this listing.

The church is of concrete frame construction, faced with brown brick and topped with a crown of bare cast concrete. The roof is not visible. The building features areas of plain glazing alongside high-quality stained and dalle de verre glass. A sculptural bronze panel, possibly over a fibreglass base, spans the porch.

The plan form is oval, with a projecting narthex porch and a small circular baptistery projecting to the south-west. The nave is embraced by an ambulatory, and the sanctuary projects into the main body of the church. The church hall is situated to the south-west of the baptistery.

Exterior

The church represents a departure from typical designs of around 1960, and indeed differs from Goalen's T-shaped church at Our Lady of Fatima in Harrow, Essex. It abandons the traditional basilican plan in favour of an oval one with a projecting sanctuary, positioning no member of the congregation more than about twenty-five feet from the focal point. The building is constructed of dark brown brick laid in Flemish bond, with an entrance facing the main road leading into a narthex containing a repository and children's room. Above the entrance is a deep relief inscription reading "Come into the temple of God that your lot may be with Christ in life eternal", created by Stephen Sykes and taking words from the baptismal rite of the old Mass. The entrance doors are timber with vertical glazed panels, with fixed matching side panels.

The upper part of the church comprises a drum-like structure with a continuous clerestory surmounted by a rising crown of bare concrete. A crucifix is affixed to the centre and the crown is punctuated by plainly detailed projections corresponding to the clerestory mullions below. Projecting from the south side is a circular baptistery featuring nearly full-height glazing between vertical bare concrete members, surmounted by a single bell mounted within a metal tripod topped with a cross finial. Adjacent to the south-west of the baptistery stands the church hall, built in complementary style and materials with strong vertical emphasis.

Interior

The narthex is plainly detailed with a glazed screen separating the children's room (formerly a side chapel) to the north. Inside, the western half of the church—opposite the sanctuary—features an ambulatory with polygonal concrete columns, lit from above by a series of small light wells. The walls are generally bare brown brick. The ambulatory and lower portion of the sanctuary have vermiculated patterning created by projecting bricks with double-angled hook profiles; foam was tucked behind these for acoustic purposes, though by 2015 most had disintegrated. The upper level features a clerestory. The western half contains a series of clear glazed windows now punctuated by dalle de verre panels by Dom Charles Norris, dating from the 1980s. The eastern half is differently treated with triangular concrete vertical members that diffuse light from clear glazing behind. An oval glazed Agnus Dei by Patrick Reyntiens hangs over the sanctuary. Over the worship space, the roof is carried on deep concrete beams interspersed with pine strips. The floor slopes gently towards the sanctuary and is tiled.

Original glass in the oval windows over the sanctuary and in the baptistery, listing the Seven Sacraments, is by Patrick Reyntiens. The original circular font, still in the baptistery, is constructed of travertine with a painted honeycomb brick shaft. Dalle de verre glass by Dom Charles Norris was added in 1987–89, with clerestory windows depicting St Gregory, the Annunciation, Nativity, Last Supper, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Pentecost, Assumption and the Blessed Sacrament. Window strips either side of the entrance depict the Four Evangelists. Fibreglass and bronze statues of St Gregory and the Virgin and Child (near the baptistery) are by Willi Soukup. The original plain travertine altar remains in situ. Simple timber benches are supported on bare cast concrete uprights fixed to the ground.