Church of St Bartholomew is a Grade II listed building in the Reading local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 December 1978. Church.
Church of St Bartholomew
- WRENN ID
- crooked-baluster-rook
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Reading
- Constituency
- Reading Central MP: Matt Rodda (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 14 December 1978
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Bartholomew, London Road
- OS grid reference
- SU 735 733
- Coordinates
- 51.45432, -0.94266
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Bartholomew, located on London Road, is a Grade II listed Church of England building constructed in 1879. It is notable as Alfred Waterhouse's first and possibly only large-scale project in church architecture, designed in the Gothic style. The church features a five-bay aisled nave made of red brick with grey brick decoration, including a cross in the west gable and decorative bands. It has an ashlar plinth and recessed reveals, topped with a tiled roof.
The west front includes a central entrance with a stepped triplet in a pointed recess above, and a double belfry. A west porch, added later in 1920 by Sir Ninian Comper, features an ashlar ogee entrance flanked by shield panels depicting St Bartholomew's flaying knives and St Peter's keys, and is topped by a canopied niche with a statue of St Bartholomew.
Inside, the church has wide bay arcades supported by low columns. The interior's polychromy of brickwork, which was once exposed, is now obscured by whitewash. The roof is a tie beam structure. The three-bay aisled chancel, added between 1902 and 1905 by G F Bodley with Waterhouse's consent, features decorated windows and a panelled waggon roof.
Local climate
Church of St Bartholomew sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 720 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 81% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 77% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 50% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
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