Christ Church University Music Centre (Former Church of St Gregory the Great)

CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT)

This early Victorian church was built in 1850–52 to the design of George Gilbert Scott, one of the most successful church architects of the 19th century. It is constructed of knapped flint facing with limestone dressings and has red clay tile roofs.

The building is designed in the Geometrical style of the late 13th century. It comprises a nave of four bays, a chancel of two bays, a north aisle, a south porch, and a two-storey north vestry and organ chamber, each section articulated under its own roof. A tall, two-tier triple bellcote rises over the nave and chancel junction. The west window is unusually larger than the east window; the west has four lights with quatrefoils and trefoils in its tracery, while the east window has three lights with three cusped circles. A west doorway is present, its gable breaking into the lights above. The south side windows have variously treated circles in their heads, and the north aisle north wall is lit by paired lancets.

Inside, the walls are plastered and painted. The four-bay north arcade features arches with one hollow chamfer and one sunk quadrant moulding, supported on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. The chancel arch is richly moulded, with its inner order supported on corbels. Both nave and chancel are covered by scissor-braced roofs.

The church was said to have been built as a memorial to Archbishop Howley (archbishop 1828–48). Funding presented difficulties, and the building was scaled back from original plans. In 1849 it was estimated to cost £3,425 and was to include a south aisle and north chancel aisle; the final contracted price was £2,240. The church was consecrated on 23 August 1852.

The building was closed in 1976, sold in 1981, and conversion work began the following April to create a theatre for Christ Church College. It is now the Music Centre for Christ Church University. All church fittings have been removed except for a tripartite wooden war memorial on the south wall of the nave. A mezzanine floor has been introduced into the two west bays of the north aisle as part of the conversion to secular use.