Trinity Arts Centre (Formerly Holy Trinity Church)

Trinity Arts Centre, formerly Holy Trinity Church, is a Grade II* listed building constructed between 1827 and 1829 to the designs of architect Decimus Burton. The church was converted into an arts centre in 1981.

Built in local tooled sandstone ashlar, the building comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a small chancel, a west tower, vestibules to the north and south of the tower, and a northeast vestry.

The exterior presents an impressive piece of Gothic Revival urban architecture from the late 1820s. Although the overall lines follow the Perpendicular style, much of the detailing draws from earlier medieval periods. The aisle walls are divided into six bays by buttresses with offsets. Between each buttress stands a two-light window set within deep reveals, containing acutely pointed Y-tracery with cusping. All parts of the church feature shallow embattled parapets, except the chancel and the east face of the nave, which have plain parapets. The east window, broadly based on early 14th-century work, contains four lights with a ten-foiled circle in the head.

The west end is symmetrically arranged about the west tower. The tower has angle buttresses and three loosely-defined stages. The first stage is the tallest, incorporating a plain moulded west doorway topped by a two-light square-headed window. Apart from the east face, there follows a short clock stage, above which rises the belfry level with two-light windows under a crocketed ogee canopy. The tower top is finished with large corner pinnacles and a pierced parapet with small gablets in the middle of each face. Vestibules flank the tower on the north and south, with entrances leading to stairs serving the galleries.

The interior has been substantially altered following the conversion to an arts centre, but the form of the arcades remains clearly visible, consisting of five bays with clustered columns and moulded capitals. Above the arcades is an awkward junction between the moulded arches and vertical continuation of the piers, which rise straight upwards to meet the flat ceiling.

The west part of the main space now contains raked seating for performances. Meeting rooms, a café, and kitchen spaces occupy the ground floor, while the galleries largely survive. The east window, dating to circa 1830, is an important example of pre-Victorian painted glass, featuring figures of the Evangelists set beneath scrolls and canopies. Two significant monuments survive at the west end: one to Maria Thomas (died 1833) by William Behnes, and another to Lieutenant Charles Newton (died 1843) by Richard Westmacott junior.

The building occupies a prominent position in central Tunbridge Wells and was the first church built in the town during the 19th century. It marked one end of Decimus Burton's Calverley estate; the buildings linking it to this development have been demolished by 20th-century civic centre expansion. The church cost £10,591, with the Church Building Commissioners contributing £8,059 of this sum. The builders were Henry and Aaron Barrett of Tunbridge Wells. The completed church provided 1,500 seats, 939 of which were unappropriated.

The 1820s witnessed considerable expansion of Anglican church-building as efforts were made to provide worship spaces in inadequately served towns. The Church Building Commission played an important role in some cases, as here. The resulting buildings varied considerably in quality and style, with Gothic gradually becoming predominant. At Holy Trinity, Decimus Burton produced a building of considerable presence, important to the townscape of Tunbridge Wells. Though the proportions are typical of Commissioners' churches, his detailing is more solid and genuinely medieval than was usual, yet there is no mistaking this as a church of its time. Before the 1840s, such churches lacked long chancels, but these were typically replaced during the Victorian period with ones emulating medieval precedent. The short projection at Holy Trinity represents a relatively rare survival of the pre-Victorian arrangement. The late 20th-century conversion to an arts centre has had no significant impact upon the exterior, while the interior retains its arcades, much of the galleries, and an important example of pre-Victorian glass painting.

In the later 20th century the building was threatened with demolition by the Church Commissioners but found a future as an arts centre, remaining in daily use.

Decimus Burton (1800–1881) began his career in his father James's office—James was a London builder—and subsequently worked for architect George Maddox (1760–1843). Burton established his independent architectural practice in 1821 and retired in 1869. He became architect to the Royal Botanic Society in 1841 and was succeeded in practice by his nephew Henry Marley Burton (died 1880). His output was considerable and his reputation remains high; his contribution to the expansion of Tunbridge Wells was very significant.