Church Of St Winefride

Church of St Winefride

A Roman Catholic church built in 1904–5 by Frederick A. Walters, situated at the corner of Latimer Road and Merton Road in Wimbledon. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressing and large areas of rough cast for plain wall surfaces, roofed in slate with a pitched design. The architectural style is Romanesque.

The building follows a rectangular plan with a wide nave flanked by narrow aisles and a deep sanctuary. A Lady Chapel occupies the south-east corner, while the north-east side contains the sacristy and vestry. A baptistry is positioned at the north-west corner.

The west elevation features a central round window in the gable end with plate tracery pierced by eight round windows, encircled by a red brick border within a panel of roughcast that extends into the gable and terminates in three arches. To the left stands a tall, shallow belfry pierced by two round-headed openings with decorative voussoirs and a pedimented top decorated with ornamental brickwork. Striped banding runs at regular intervals across the entire façade except where roughcast is present. An elaborate porch above the entrance has recessed arches flanked by niches.

On the Latimer Road elevation, a small porch at the north-west corner features triple lights in the gable. Two round arches with rough cast infill flank each side wall. A large gabled transept projects at the east end. The nave wall consists of alternating bays of rectangular panels of rough cast and round-arched bays with nogging in the spandrels.

The interior is a six-bay design with double arcades in brick with stone dressing carried on brick piers. Below the clerestory windows, each bay is subdivided into two smaller arches supported on stone columns. Red brick dominates the interior finish, with stone voussoirs in the arches and black bands adding pattern. A wooden gallery at the west end is carried on three arches resting on stone columns. A timber roof crowns a round-headed chancel arch with a stone and brick chequered pattern. The chancel is two bays with paired clerestory windows. A shallow brick apse, originally rising from floor to roof, has been opened up in its upper portion and filled with modern stained glass.

Original fixed oak pews and a wood block floor remain in place. The most notable interior feature is the large reredos filling the central portion of the east end, executed in carved and inlaid marble and alabaster. The solid retable is surmounted by a richly embossed and enamelled gilt tabernacle in the centre, flanked by inlaid roundels depicting the instruments of the Passion. On either side are supports terminating in turretted canopies encasing figures of St Winefride and St Ignatius. The central throne for the Blessed Sacrament is topped by a larger domed turret containing Christ rising from the tomb, with the Holy Lamb depicted in the panel beneath. Three tiers of arcading with green marble columns, white alabaster caps and bosses frame statues of the four evangelists and angels. The altar itself is of marble and stone with an embossed and gilded metal front. An alabaster altar rail with coloured marble inlay is separated by wrought-iron gates.

The Lady Chapel contains its own richly carved marble and alabaster altar and reredos. The reredos comprises a central panel showing the figure of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception flanked by relief panels representing the Triumph of Good over Evil and the Annunciation. The altar and chapel were intended as a memorial to the proclamation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in 1854.

Walters, who had been articled to Goldie and Child, was renowned from the 1880s for his versatility in various architectural styles. The style and materials of St Winefride's reflect the influence of Scott, Bodley and Bentley. Walters had previously designed the Sacred Heart Church at Edge Hill, Wimbledon, founded by the Jesuits in 1886 and instrumental in establishing Catholic presence in the area.