Church Of St James

Church of St James, Lind Street

Opened in 1827, this pre-ecclesiological Gothic style church was designed by the architect Greenway Robins of Walworth, who also designed the integral church hall. The building was constructed as a proprietary chapel. It was externally altered by R P Thomas in 1968-9, when much of the original Gothic decorative detailing was stripped away and the bell turret was demolished. The windows were mainly replaced in the 1990s. The chancel arch was blocked in 1996 and some furnishings moved forward in front of it.

The church is rendered with a slate roof to the church hall and 20th-century concrete tiles to the church. The plan comprises a west vestibule and nave of six bays with north and south aisles, galleries on three sides, a single bay chancel and an attached two to three storey church hall at the eastern end.

As originally built in 1827, the church featured an elaborately decorated central bay at the western end, with octagonal buttresses, pavilions with crenellated parapets, and all windows with hood-moulds. The north and south sides also had crenellated parapets and arched window heads with quatrefoil motifs and hood-moulding. There was a slender gabled and pinnacled bell turret. The west front now retains the original gable roofline, the lower parts of two buttresses flanking the central entrance, the flanking window openings and the lower parts of corner octagonal turrets. However, the gable has been covered in 20th-century plastic weatherboarding and a central relief feature with intersecting curves representing the Christian fish symbol has been added over the central doorcase. The original doorcase was replaced in the later 20th century by a flat hood on brackets. The original side pavilions retain stripped down original lancet windows but have lost their original doorcases. The north and south sides retain seven paired metal two tier cinquefoil-headed windows divided by buttresses. Some windows retain original stained glass to the spandrels. The eastern chancel window is lower. On the south side, iron forecourt railings on a low wall connect the southern pavilion to the former church hall. The south side of the church hall has a gable with end buttresses, a first floor arched Perpendicular style three-light mullioned and transomed window, ground floor lancet windows and a square porch with raised centre to the parapet, arched doorcase and lancet windows to the returns. The east and north sides are plain with 20th-century windows.

The interior is approached through a vestibule with arched wooden double doors. The nave has a boarded kingpost roof supported on stone corbels. Galleries occupy the north, south and west sides, with the west gallery containing the organ. The two tier arcade has slender octagonal piers with four-centred arches above those to the galleries. The wooden gallery balconies are panelled with blank arches and shields. The east end has a large four-centred blank arch with hood-moulding and narrower similar arches with arched doorcases below to the aisles. There is a central wooden carved triptych with cusped panels; the central panel is inscribed 'Till He Come' in Gothic lettering, and the side panels are inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Well staircases to the galleries have stick balusters and column newels. The church hall has a similar staircase with a built-in settle on the landing. The upper hall has a suspended 20th-century ceiling.

Both the nave and aisles retain the original box pews with triangular-headed end panels and polygonal finials. The galleries also retain the original box pews. The wooden pulpit, positioned to the south of the east end, is square with canted angles and panels with triangular motifs. The hexagonal wooden font has quatrefoil motifs to the side panels and is supported on columns.

A floor was inserted at gallery level in the nave for a period but was later removed.