Church Of St Paul Without The Walls

Church of St Paul Without the Walls

This medieval church on Church Street has been significantly developed over time, with substantial 13th-century work surviving in the tower and north aisle. The building originally consisted of a west tower, nave, chancel, south aisle and chapel. In 1856, the renowned architect Sir George Gilbert Scott undertook a major enlargement and refurbishment. He added a three-bay south aisle and south vestry, reconfigured the former south aisle and chapel to create the new nave and chancel, and rebuilt the east end of what is now the north aisle. Scott also refenestrated the church, refurbished its interior, and rebuilt the top of the tower.

The church is constructed of flint and stone rubble with freestone dressings. Scott's work uses neatly knapped flint. The roof is covered in clay tiles.

The building comprises a northwest tower, nave, chancel, northeast organ chamber, north and south aisles, and south vestry.

Exterior features

The traceried windows are predominantly in the Decorated style and are Scott's work, with the exception of some tower windows. Scott's tracery on the north wall is designed to match 14th-century tracery shown in a drawing from 1847. The aisles and nave-chancel are under separate gables.

The north elevation abuts the street and contains five windows by Scott. The two eastern bays of the north wall were rebuilt by Scott but retain old freestone quoins at the northeast corner. At the northwest corner stands the short tower, featuring a moulded north doorway alongside a large, chequered stepped buttress. Below a stringcourse is a medieval quatrefoil window and a plain slit window. Above the stringcourse, Scott's design continues with two-light Perpendicular belfry windows, except on the east face where a pair of unusual single-light square-headed windows occupy the space. The tower is topped by a low, tiled pyramidal roof.

The east gables of the organ chamber and chancel are flush with three- and four-light windows respectively. On the south chancel wall, two windows flank a small medieval priest's door. The chancel is lit from above by a two-light dormer window with tile-hung sides, matching the 19th-century clerestory. A two-light window lights the east gable of the south aisle. Scott's vestry features a stack and a shoulder-headed doorway.

Interior features

The medieval north arcade contains three round piers with moulded capitals and plain, single-chamfered pointed arches. The tower displays 13th-century chamfered arches on its east and south faces, with cushion bar stops below the respond capitals. There is no chancel arch. The clerestory takes the form of dormers set within the roof. The nave roof is seven-sided, plastered and panelled, with 19th-century tie-beams. The chancel roof is boarded and panelled, preserving attractive Victorian painted decoration above the sanctuary.

Principal fixtures include colourful mosaic and opus sectile panels depicting the Evangelists flanking the east window, with tiles and mosaic extending round the sanctuary walls below. A trefoil-headed piscina, probably 13th-century, is set into the north wall. The font is probably Scott's work, featuring a square bowl decorated with carved roundels on a circular stem with dark marble corner shafts. The nave and aisle seating comprises a substantially complete 19th-century scheme with shaped, shouldered ends. Late 19th and early 20th-century choir stalls, now in the north aisle, are also present. The windows contain several 19th and early 20th-century stained glass windows, including one probably by Hardman in the chancel and another signed by A L Moore in the south aisle. Monuments include a brass dated 1531/2 commemorating George Wyndbourne and his wife. A marble bust and escutcheons from the monument to Sir Edward Master (died 1648), originally in St Michael's Chapel in the cathedral, are displayed above the northwest doorway. Several other minor wall monuments are present.

History

The structural history of St Paul's is traceable to the 13th century. The building was substantially enlarged and refitted under Sir George Gilbert Scott. Scott (1811-78) began practice in the late 1830s and became the most successful church architect of his era. Though often criticised for over-restoration, his work was generally respectful of medieval buildings, while his new churches possessed a harmonious quality derived from late 13th and early 14th-century architecture. He also designed important secular buildings including the Albert Memorial and the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras. He received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1859 and was knighted in 1872, subsequently being buried in Westminster Abbey. At St Paul's, Scott was careful to preserve medieval work where possible, leaving the old arcade with its weathered surfaces and following existing medieval work in his new designs. His furnishings and fittings reflect the new ideas Victorians brought to church interiors in the 1840s.