Church of St Barnabas

Church of St Barnabas, built 1868–9 by architect Arthur Blomfield for patron Thomas Combe. The campanile was added in 1872 and re-roofed with a lower pitched roof in 1962–3. A morning chapel, now the Lady Chapel, was erected in 1888–9, enlarging the east end of the north aisle.

The building is constructed with rubble walls of cement render, with rendered concrete used for some elements including lintels, sills and steps. Brick is used for ornamental bands, arch heads and other details. The roofs are of slate, except for the copper roof to the campanile and lead roof to the sanctuary.

The plan comprises a clerestoried nave, five-bay north and south aisles, a sanctuary with semi-circular apse, a west-end baptistry apse, north-east Lady Chapel, south-east war memorial chapel, south-east campanile with vestry block to its west, and a south-west porch with west and south doors.

Externally, the church is built in Italianate Romanesque style, which was a striking contrast to the Gothic style prevalent in church-building during the 1860s. The most distinctive feature is the use of cement rendering as the facing material, decorated with narrow brick banding and polychrome red and yellow brick arches to the openings. The sanctuary is blind with a corbelled brick cornice, ornamented with three brick crosses. The nave has tall round-headed clerestory windows and brick string-courses. The aisles are topped with low lean-to roofs and contain small two-light square-headed windows, each with a central column with moulded capital and base. The blind east wall and gable of the Lady Chapel projects beyond the end of the sanctuary apse. The north elevation of the Lady Chapel features brick banding and seven windows: three pairs of round-headed windows and a one-light window to the west. A smaller apsidal chapel, St George's Chapel, was built in 1919 and projects from the east end of the south aisle. The west baptistry has recessed windows with stepped detail to the jambs, above which is a large oculus in the nave west wall.

The campanile rises in three stages demarcated by brick banding. The lowest stage has narrow paired one-light windows with brick relieving arches. The next stage has square-headed one-light windows to each face recessed under round-headed brick arches. The south face contains a pair of double doors in a round-headed arch under a gable, providing access to the upper floors. The belfry stage displays very large three-light louvres with three cusped circles in each head. Clock faces below the belfry stage are framed by paired brick pilasters. The campanile is topped with a low pyramidal roof. At the south-west corner, the south porch wraps around the building and continues the south aisle. The south doorway has corbelled detailing to the jambs and an outer door with good strap hinges; above the lintel the wall is pierced with three openings for an overlight. A more elaborate doorway to the west has a polychromatic round-headed arch recessed under a corbelled gable, matched by an identical doorway at the north end of the west elevation, though the porch or lobby it originally served was converted to the Holy Cross Chapel in 1912.

Internally, the church is brightly lit with simple lines, its effect deriving from rich decoration which forms only part of what was originally intended. Unlike contemporary Gothic church plans, the chancel forms part of the main body of the building with the stepped-up choir projecting as a separate structure to the west of a tall polychromatic arch. The choir area is defined by low walls on three sides with inlaid marble panels and by a large cross hanging above; decorative iron railings were removed in 1940 during the Second World War, as were gates on the north and south sides, while western gates were cut down to wall level. Either side of the chancel arch, the walls are gilded and painted with the emblems of the Evangelists.

The arcades, north and south, comprise six bays with round, unstepped arches and cylindrical stone piers with broad waterleaf capitals incorporating some figure carving. Bases rest on brick plinths. The arch to the west baptistry is also round, with responds featuring waterleaf capitals with figure carving. The west oculus is recessed behind a round-headed arch.

The nave is covered by a tie-beam and king-post roof with broad arch-braces to the collar. Three pairs of purlins divide the roof into panels richly decorated with sunburst motifs. The lean-to roofs of the aisles are plainer but also painted, as is the flat boarded roof to the baptistry. In the east apse, the roof is painted with a large gilded figure of Christ in Majesty above a wall frieze of the Apostles and a depiction of the Lamb of God behind the altar; this work was designed by Blomfield and executed by Heaton, Butler and Bayne in 1868–9 and has undergone repainting several times, including gilding of areas in 1893.

The north wall of the nave between the clerestory windows contains figurative panels of glass opus sectile by James Powell and Sons. This scheme, which includes a tiled Te Deum frieze punctuated by cherub medallions in opus sectile, as well as patterned tiles to the spandrels of the arches and above the springing of clerestory windows, was funded by public subscription and erected in sections between 1905–6 and 1911. The south and west walls of the nave and Lady Chapel are decorated with brick string-courses. The steps to the sanctuary are of rendered concrete and tile, with the choir floor tiled. The nave flooring is of wood blocks, laid in 1889–90 and replaced in 2004–5. The original floor was of hard Portland cement relieved by a few lines of tiles, beneath which was a heating system.

The principal fixtures include an elaborate baldacchino over the altar, which has three inlaid marble panels, featuring cusped arches and crocketed gables. In the Lady Chapel, the altar is gilded and painted. The polygonal pulpit and tester of 1887 form an outstanding piece of Neo-17th century work, with painting and gilding by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The font is a square bowl decorated with roundels on a squat cylindrical base with marble corner shafts with waterleaf capitals and bases. The gilded font cover, in the shape of a domed baldacchino, is dedicated to Herbert Moore, died 1942. The south-east chapel, dedicated as a war memorial to St George in 1920, is divided from the aisle by a three-bay classical arcade of polished marble columns and a low iron and timber screen with gates. It contains a fine green and white marble altar. The nave is furnished with wooden chairs.