Church Of St Paul

Church, vicarage and boundary wall built 1873-4 by RK Blessley of Eastbourne. The tower was added before 1897, possibly by Robert Wheeler of Tunbridge Wells. A vestry was added in 1939 but is not of special interest.

Materials and Construction

Built of randomly coursed Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings and a Bangor slate roof.

Plan

The church comprises a six-bay nave, chancel, north and south aisles, and a south-west tower containing the main entrance. A later north-east vestry was added.

Exterior

The building is designed in the Early Decorated Gothic style with an aisled clerestoried nave and lower chancel. At the west end of the south aisle stands a tall, two-stage crenellated tower housing the main door in its south elevation. Each aisle terminates at its east end in a double gable. The easternmost gables adjoining the chancel contain the sacristy and vestry, each with gabled porches in their east elevations. The gable on the north elevation has a flat-roofed vestry attached, dating from the 1930s, which is not of special interest.

The south aisle has four bays and the north aisle five, separated by buttresses, each with double-lancet windows under hoodmoulds. The gabled sections feature double lancets with plate tracery. The clerestory has five bays to the south and six to the north, with low arched windows under hoodmoulds and a mixture of trefoil and quatrefoil tracery. The west window is a double lancet with Y-tracery and a wheel window, while the east window has a four-light lancet window with geometric tracery.

The tower features large arched windows with curvilinear tracery in each face of the upper stage, three of which contain inserted clock faces. A band of blind arcading separates the two stages. The west face of the base has a small double-arched window lighting the passage into the church. The arched main entrance sits under a gable-shaped moulding and has stone voussoirs and double mouldings supported on short engaged columns with round capitals.

Interior

The interior is plastered and whitewashed with splayed window reveals. The nave arcade has wide pointed arches supported on round columns with moulded round capitals and plain round bases. The north arcade comprises six bays while the south arcade has only five to accommodate the base of the tower, which contains the entrance porch. The chancel arch features a hoodmould, moulding and engaged colonettes with floral capital decoration. The east and west window arches also have hoodmoulds and colonettes.

The nave has a stained timber trussed roof with alternating trusses, some with a tie beam, collar, arched bracing and wall post, others with just a simple collar positioned above the clerestory arches. All are supported on plain corbels. The ceiling is boarded over exposed rafters and purlins. The chancel has an open-truss roof. The chancel floor is decoratively tiled, and further tiling in a lattice pattern is found in the nave and aisles.

Fixtures and Fittings

Original fittings of note include a Bath stone bowl-and-stem font situated at the west end, a round Bath stone pulpit with short red Mansfield stone columns and rail, and a reredos with a carved stone altarpiece depicting the Last Supper beneath three ogee arches and a triple gabled canopy. Two red Mansfield stone tablets on either side contain the Lord's Prayer and Decalogue in Gothic script, again set in ogee arches with marble colonettes and with angel figures above.

Inside the entrance porch is a bronze World War I memorial plaque set in an elaborate wooden frame with a Gothic tracery hood containing carvings of the Royal Standard, dated 1921. Below this is a World War II plaque. The porch also features panelling carved with badges and coats of arms, and a bench. There are organ cases filling the two arches in the chancel, one or possibly both originally from other churches. All original pews have been removed and replaced with chairs.

Stained Glass

The stained glass windows are unattributed and date mostly from the 1880s, 1890s and 1920s, dedicated by members of the congregation. The west window has a plaque recording its donation in 1885 by pupils from the fifteen schools attending the church. A charming memorial window in the south aisle dated 1927 commemorates John William Dixon, Master Mariner, showing two sailing ships.

The Vicarage

Located to the west of the church, the vicarage is a large two-storey building with attic and basement. It is built of Kentish ragstone with Bath stone and red brick dressings and pitched slate roofs. Rectangular in plan, it has a full-height projection to the south and a large porch reached by a flight of steps to the east. A two-storey canted bay with fluted columns is located on the west elevation gable, a single-storey (extending to basement level) canted bay on the south gable, and a large single-storey square bay to the north. The elevations are enlivened by red brick string courses and window detailing. Windows are mostly square-headed sashes on the upper storey and, on the lower storey, sashes set in double arched Gothic windows with red brick arches, stone keys and blind plate tracery. Large brick chimneys are present, with the one between the south and west gables terminating in corbelling above the lower storey.

The interior has been converted to offices. Original surviving features include some fire surrounds with dog-tooth mouldings, a screen from the porch with etched glass, a patterned tile floor in the hallway, stairs with splat balusters and ornamented tread ends, and several doors.

Subsidiary Features

The original low ragstone boundary wall remains, with gable-capped gate piers to the east of the church and to the vicarage. The section to the south of the church has been removed.

Historical Context

During the 19th century, Margate, one of the first English seaside resorts, flourished as a destination favoured by middle-class Londoners, particularly after the establishment of a regular steamer service from London in 1815 and, to a lesser extent, after the opening of Margate Sands railway station in 1846. Cliftonville developed from the 1860s to provide additional respectable accommodation, starting with the Cliftonville Hotel and Ethelbert Crescent and expanding inland during the 1870s. Cliftonville also provided its own attractions such as the Clifton Baths dating from 1831. By the 1870s, a new church was felt necessary to serve the growing suburb.

The memorial stone of St Paul's Church was laid on 16 September 1872 and it was dedicated on 13 November 1873 by the Archbishop of Canterbury. St Paul's was an offshoot of Holy Trinity Church, Trinity Square (demolished following bomb damage in World War II) and was built with a capacity for 800 worshippers on land north of what was then Alexandra Road, provided by a Mr TD Reeve and a Mr J Andrews. The architect was RK Blessley of Eastbourne and it was built by Messrs Cooke and Green of London at a cost of £8,500 including boundary walls and vicarage.

The tower was apparently built later, possibly at the same time as the west window, which has a dedication plate dated 1885. An engraving dated 1874 shows the church with an identical tower, so it was presumably completed to Blessley's original design, although sources refer to the church being completed by Robert Wheeler of Tunbridge Wells. The tower was certainly built by 1897 when a church bell and clocks were provided by subscription. Extensive repairs to the tower were carried out in 1971.

Robert Knott Blessley (1833-1923), a pupil of J Messenger, started his independent career with an office at 8 Furnival's Inn, London. By 1866 he had moved to Eastbourne and by 1878 he was in partnership there with H Spurrell (1847-1918). In Eastbourne he designed the Grand Hotel and at least two nonconformist chapels. In 1874-6 he designed St John, Polegate, East Sussex. He also worked in Hailsham and had an office in Lewes. His membership of the RIBA lapsed after 1876 and by 1901 he had retired to Brighton.