Church Of Our Lady Of The Assumption

NORTHFLEET

10/1/125 THE HILL 26-JUL-83 THE HILL Church of Our Lady of the Assumption

II*

Roman Catholic church. Built 1913-16 to the designs of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Reinforced concrete, faced in brown Crowborough brick, flat roofs. Rectangular plan with west tower and door. Gothic vertical emphasis as used by Scott in Liverpool Cathedral, but here developed for the first time in monumental brick and reinforced concrete. Channelled base. Low aisles and bands of clerestory windows set against tall gabled west chapels and east transepts. Interior little altered, with three-bay brick and concrete arcades whose continuous mouldings are unbroken by capitals. High square vestigial sanctuary arch with hanging rood, high reredos by Scott of 1953-4 and high altar (a modern freestanding altar at the foot of the sanctuary steps has enabled the original arrangement to be retained behind. Choir stalls and pews, with pulpit to side. Chairs serve aisle chapels; the Lady Chapel altar and reredos by Scott date from 1923-4. A similar square frame to the tower arch, in which is an organ loft and alternative space for choir. Hanging pendant lights from trabeated ceiling.

Our Lady of the Assumption is significant in the work of this leading twentieth-century ecclesiastical architect in being the first of his brick churches to achieve a truly monumental, subliminal quality. Scott was later to further explore the medium in his secular work, notably at Bankside Power Station, now Tate Modern, whose qualities are anticipated here. The use of concrete was experimental, while the interior is imaginative and cohesive in its simplicity.

Source A Stuart Gray, Edwardian Architects, London, Duckworth, 1985, p.220

Listing NGR: TQ6246874136