Roman Catholic Church of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary (Church of St Mary), with presbytery and later additions including the convent school chapel wing and linking corridor

Roman Catholic Church of the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary (Church of St Mary), with presbytery and later additions including the convent school chapel wing and linking corridor

This Roman Catholic church was built between 1844 and 1846 to designs by J A Hansom, funded by the Countess of Clare. It includes a contemporary attached presbytery and later extensions, among them part of the attached convent school, built between 1883 and 1884 to designs by J S Hansom.

Materials and Construction

The church and presbytery are built of local coursed ragstone with mostly Portland stone dressings and later brick additions. The roofs are mainly covered in clay tiles. The late 19th-century convent school buildings are mostly ragstone and brick.

Plan

The church is orientated west to east and consists of an aisled nave to the west, sanctuary to the east, Shrine Chapel to the south, and to the north a sacristy, first-floor founders' private chapel, and Sacred Heart Chapel. There is also a porch and narthex at the north-west. To the east lies a courtyard bordered by linking ranges to the north and south and the presbytery to the east on a triangular plot. To the north is another courtyard surrounded by part of the late 19th-century convent school buildings.

Exterior: Church

The gabled west front faces the High Street and has an asymmetrical design. At the centre is a deeply recessed entrance porch topped by a carved triple two-point arch within a gabled porch. The porch is partially cut off by a square tower which diminishes to a slender upper stage and a short spire. Within the tower are lancet windows, a clock on the north side, and a statue of the Virgin Mary in a niche beneath a heavy gabled canopy with ogee arch. Above the porch and to the left of the tower are three pointed-arch lancets in moulded frames, and the elevation is topped by a vesica. The right side of the gable has a clasped column topped by a tapering pinnacle. The gable end of the south aisle includes a moulded triple-arch arcade, a cusped triangular window at the apex, and a clasped buttress with decorative pinnacle.

To the north of the west elevation is the 1884 addition. The single-storey addition to the north aisle has seven tightly spaced lancets divided by slender moulded columns and a coped parapet roof; behind is the top of the original north-aisle gable with a trefoil window. To the left is the flat-roofed narthex with five lancet windows divided by columns. The adjacent pitched-roof porch includes a recessed pointed-arch entranceway with metal gates. All the gables are topped by stone crosses.

The blind north church elevation faces into a courtyard and is built up against the adjoining convent buildings. Towards the east end of this elevation is the brick apse of the Sacred Heart Chapel with lancet windows. The south church elevation faces onto St Mary's Passage and has pointed-arch lancet windows divided by flat buttresses. The east gable end of the church faces into a courtyard shared with the presbytery. This end is topped by a trefoil east window and at the base is a three-light round-arched crypt window, with three further windows on the south return.

Exterior: Presbytery and Linking Ranges

The four-storey presbytery is separated from the church by a courtyard with linking ranges to the north and south. The north range is rubble stone with a central canted bay and a set of external steps. The southern linking range, rebuilt in 1893, is yellow brick with ashlar dressings and a pitched slate roof.

The presbytery's three-storey west elevation faces onto the courtyard and includes triple-light mullioned windows with a combination of sashes and casements, and a later two-storey brick and glazed lean-to porch. The presbytery's multi-faceted east elevation has an entrance and asymmetrical fenestration, including irregularly placed casement and sash windows. There is a first-floor projecting four-light bay window placed on the angle of a keel in elevation, above which are further windows with colonettes and two quatrefoil plaques that bear the initials and arms of the founder, the Countess of Clare, and the initials and arms of Thomas Grant, Bishop of Southwark, along with the date of the church's consecration. Over the north and south elevations are stone stacks. Further along the south elevation, between the presbytery and the church, is the south side of the late 19th-century brick linking range which includes a side door and rectangular windows that have metal casements on the ground floor and ashlar mullions on the first.

Exterior: Convent School Buildings

Attached to the north of the church, and to the east of the late 19th-century church porch, is part of the convent school buildings from 1884, arranged around a courtyard. At the east end of the group is a two-storey ragstone storeroom wing with a pitched roof and stone ridge stack. To the north is a long brick corridor with a side entrance and round-arch ground-floor windows with stone sills. The window surrounds and plat bands are in yellow brick and at first-floor level is a row of timber casement windows.

On the east side of the courtyard is the brick convent chapel wing with yellow brick detailing to the windows and plat bands. The wing's west elevation is two-storey with an attic level, has windows topped by pointed cambered arches, and there is a later lean-to which encloses the stairs leading to the founder's oratory in the main church. The wing's east elevation is three storeys, and windows are topped by paired and triple segmental arches supported by stone columns on stone sills. There is also a round stair turret topped by a conical roof with a foliate pinnacle. The wing's south return faces the church and is clad in complementary ragstone. The wing is topped by a mansard roof with brick stacks and timber gabled dormers with trefoil-headed windows. Most of the windows in this wing are boarded over.

Interior: Church Entrance and Nave

The current entrance door to the church is within the 1884 porch and leads into the narthex. Within the main body of the church and flanking the west door is a set of wooden confessionals installed in 2012 and the door to a spiral stone stair within the bell tower, which leads up to the organ gallery. The gallery has a panelled dado and a pierced timber front; the organ was replaced in 2007.

The nave is flanked by arcades with cylindrical pillars topped by large capitals. They support moulded pointed arches, with the upper mouldings springing from corbel heads. The arches have masonry infills that are pierced by quatrefoils and supported by depressed arches. The arch-braced king-post trusses of the nave roof have decorative openwork timber supports rising from corbels with carved angel heads bearing text scrolls. Between these supports, the paired trefoil-headed clerestory windows have their original coloured diamond and square quarries. The seating in the nave and aisles consists of open-back pine benches on raised timber platforms incorporating heating pipes and grilles; the seating may be contemporary with the 1884 black-and-white marble slab floor.

Interior: Sanctuary

The sanctuary arch is tall and richly moulded. On either side of the arch are the reused top and steps of the dismantled late 19th-century pulpit. The sanctuary floor level, step and high altar date to the 1970s. The blue-painted sanctuary roof, part of the earliest decoration scheme directed by John Hardman and Company, has transverse arched braces and bosses brought out in paint and gilt. Along the east wall is a wall arcade with eight triangular panels, each with a pair of trefoiled arches below. Above are statues of St Peter and St Paul flanking a central crucifix brought from Ireland in 1993, and the stained-glass trefoiled circular east window, by Philip Westlake, depicting the Countess of Clare and her patron, St Elizabeth of Hungary, kneeling before the Virgin and Child.

On the south side of the sanctuary is a triple-arched sedilia, a double-arched piscina with quatrefoil, and an opening leading to the Shrine Chapel of Our Lady. On the north side is a memorial to the founder, probably originally painted by Philip Westlake, and a door to the sacristy. Above are two pairs of trefoil-headed windows with red stone columns and topped by quatrefoils, beyond which is the founder's oratory.

Interior: Aisles and Chapels

The aisles have similar trusses to the nave. At the west end of the south aisle is the baptistry. The original baptismal font, returned to its original location in 1993, has an octagonal bowl with colonettes and carved foliage on a circular stem and square chamfered base, and is topped by an oak cover. At the east end of the south aisle is a mosaic floor and beyond is the Shrine Chapel of Our Lady of Ryde from 1893, with an earlier altar traditionally attributed by some to P P Pugin or A W N Pugin, though this is unconfirmed. The chapel's walls and ceiling are decorated in devotional and biblical scenes and inscriptions, first painted by Nathaniel Westlake in 1894, and it is topped by a pitched roof which is divided by ribs into panels, some filled with stained glass, top-lit by glass slates in the roof above.

At the west end of the north aisle is the 1884 extension with seven stained-glass windows that depict the Sacraments, designed by Nathaniel Westlake. Attached to the north aisle is the Sacred Heart Chapel from 1898, faced in thin marble and alabaster, and with a marble altar and floor. At the east end of the north aisle is the sacristy. Above is the founder's oratory, accessed from a later set of stairs in the adjacent convent chapel wing. The oratory has a vaulted roof and a fireplace on the north side. It has a modern timber altar and a recently relocated tabernacle behind, flanked on the wall returns by memorial plaques to the Countess of Clare and Charlotte Elliot. Stained glass in this space has been stylistically compared to those in the manner of Burlison and Grylls. On the north side is the Lady Altar, built using part of the wooden casing from the old church organ, and over it is a polychrome wooden statue given by the Countess.

Interior: Crypt

Below the sanctuary is the Norman-style crypt chapel of St Peter. A set of stairs accessed from the floor of the nave descends to a corridor leading to the crypt. The principal space has a groin-vaulted roof supported by substantial columns with cushion capitals.

Interior: Fittings, Memorials and Decorative Scheme

Other features include the consecration crosses on the aisle walls. Monuments and memorials include the alabaster mural monument to Edmund Randolph, a brass memorial to Charlotte Elliot marking the site where she died in church in 1861, stylistically attributed to John Hardman and Company. Several of the stained-glass windows are the result of multiple decades of work by Philip and Nathaniel Westlake; in addition to those described above this includes the 1863 windows in the south side of the sanctuary and further windows in the south aisles by Philip Westlake. The late 19th-century painted Stations of the Cross, also designed by Philip Westlake, are on the north and south aisle walls. There is also statuary of various dates, including a painted wooden statue of St Joseph given by the Countess of Clare, as well as brass and silver light and wall fixtures. Most of the church walls and pillars have modern paint finishes; small sample areas around the church have been uncovered to show the earlier polychromatic paint scheme surviving beneath.

Interior: Presbytery

The rooms in the presbytery are arranged over four levels and around the principal staircase with chunky newels and swept handrails. There is also a service staircase in the north-east corner. Most of the doors have four panels. At ground-floor level, the ceiling above the east door incorporates a tile with the crest and coronet of the Countess of Clare. Many of the rooms retain window shutters. There are fireplaces on most floors with stone or plaster surrounds and cast-iron grates. The level of decoration to the fireplaces varies, with those on the first floor being the most elaborate, including a surround with an ogee arch, deeply carved spandrels and inset tiles. There is an Adam-style fireplace on the ground floor; this may be a later replacement. Later partitions have been added to some of the rooms on the upper floors.

Also accessed from the presbytery are ground and first-floor rooms at the east end of the 1890s brick linking range. At the west end of the range there is a ground-floor room accessed via the door on the south elevation; this leads through to the church crypt. There is also a first-floor flower room, not accessed.

Interior: Convent School Buildings

The convent school buildings attached to the north of the church include a two-storey corridor accessed via a door on the east side of the church porch. The corridor is tiled on the ground floor. At the west end of the corridor is a pointed arch leading through to a ground-floor former cloak room and, at the top of a staircase, the first-floor former storeroom, later archive room. Further along the corridor are panelled doors leading through to the other convent wings to the north, under a separate assessment, and one to the courtyard to the south. At the east end of the corridor is a staircase and a doorway into the convent chapel wing, with a waiting room and convent chapel room on the ground floor. The convent school chapel is attached to the church and the top of the south wall is corbelled; there is a brass light fitting in the centre of the room. Attached to the west side of the convent chapel is a lean-to with a painted timber staircase that leads up to the first-floor founder's oratory within the church. The two upper levels of the convent chapel wing are former bedrooms; the staircase and upper floors were not accessible.