Church Of St Mary Magdalene And Attached Walls And Railings

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a Roman Catholic church constructed between 1861 and 1862, designed by Gilbert Blount. It is located on Upper North Street, Brighton. The church is built of red brick in English bond, with stone, black brick, and blue-glazed brick dressings, and a stone spire.

The church comprises a two-bay chancel, a five-bay nave with north and south aisles, a north tower, and a north-east vestry. All windows feature stone hoodmoulds with voussoirs above, incorporating black and blue-glazed brick linked by springing bands, with a mix of geometrical and flamboyant tracery. The east window is triangular with flamboyant tracery. A south-east chapel has a pitched roof, angle buttresses, a pointed-arched east window with a quatrefoil over three cusped lancets, and two south windows with stilted arches and a quasi-quatrefoil over two cusped lancets. The south aisle has five bays with pointed-arched windows, each featuring a quatrefoil over two cusped lancets, with buttresses and a clerestory of stilted segmental-pointed arches, each containing two cusped lancets. The western bay of the south aisle accommodates the main entrance, a shoulder-arched opening under a pointed arch with deep chamfered jambs. The north side mirrors the south, except for the tower, which abuts the second bay of the north aisle. The tower has three stages with angle buttresses; a pointed-arched entrance is flanked by engaged columns with foliage capitals supporting two orders of moulded arches. Gabled buttresses with gabled niches for statues are present, along with paired lancets to the second stage and paired cusped lancets under a stilted pointed arch to the belfry, surmounted by a corbel table and a broach spire with two-light lucarnes. The single-storey vestry is partly under a pitched roof with two three-light cusped windows under a segmental arch, and has a lower, parapeted section to the west with a pointed-arched entrance. A low brick wall with stone, chamfered coping runs along Upper North Street, with piers and railings remaining west of the tower but absent to the east. The builder was engaged on 3 August 1861 and 8 March 1862.