Holy Rood Church, Abingdon Road, Oxford

Holy Rood Church, Abingdon Road, Oxford

This church was built between 1960 and 1961 to designs by architect Gilbert Flavel. It is a steel-framed construction with yellow stock brick walls laid in Sussex bond, rendered internally. The roof features a distinctive glass, steel and copper helm roof lantern topped by a cross.

The church is laid out as a broad rectangle containing an octagonal worship space at its centre. Triangular corner spaces house the sacristy, storage, reception room and lodge, with an entrance hall on the western side containing the font. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel projects from the main rectangular plan to the right of the worship space.

The western front elevation is the building's principal face. It comprises a central double-height section containing the entrance hall and church, flanked by two single-storey ancillary areas in triangular form. Both storeys have flat roofs, with the glazed helm roof lantern rising from the centre of the double-height roof. The central entrance is a projecting, double-height glazed section with a large blue and white metal cross dividing the glazing and a pair of double doors. Two further sets of small rectangular windows flank the entrance, forming a clerestory. The single-storey ancillary areas each have two steel-framed windows. The north elevation is largely blank except for a long rectangular window illuminating the altar and a projecting single-storey flat-roofed storage room. The east elevation is entirely brickwork bearing a raised Greek cross. The south elevation features the projecting Blessed Sacrament Chapel, lit by two stained glass windows, with the triangular sacristy to its right lit by a single window. Above sits a long rectangular window for the altar. To the chapel's left is another single-storey triangular ancillary space used for office and storage, lit by a steel-framed window.

The entrance doors lead directly into the narthex, with ancillary spaces including reception room, kitchen, WCs, and administration and storage on either side. At the narthex centre stands a large circular granite font on a square base, inscribed 'FONS VITAE AETERNAE' around its circumference. It was carved by Kevin Cribb, son of Laurie Cribb, who was an assistant to Eric Gill.

The main church body is accessed through glazed double doors behind the narthex. The sanctuary sits directly opposite the main entrance, reached by three wooden steps. The granite altar is inscribed with lettering by Kevin Cribb reading 'DUX VITAE MORTUUS REGNAT VIVUS'. Behind it on the eastern wall hangs a bronze statue of Christ the Pantokrator by Michael Murray. Above the sanctuary hangs the corona, also by Michael Murray, symbolising the twelve gates of Jerusalem with lights representing the twelve apostles.

To the right of the nave is the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, a rectangular single-storey space lit by abstract stained glass windows by Charles Ware. A small altar stands against the far wall, above which is the Holy Rood statue carved by Eric Gill. The chapel south wall bears commemorative tablets to Father Crozier and Father Schomberg.

The free-standing nave benches were originally angled at the sides to face the sanctuary but now largely face forward. An organ is positioned to the left of the sanctuary. Between the sanctuary and Blessed Sacrament Chapel hangs a bronze theotokos by Michael Murray, a replica of the Romanesque Relief of Our Lady and Christ child from York Minster damaged in the Reformation, created based on evidence from Eric Maclagan's British Academy lecture. Bronze Stations of the Cross hang on the nave walls, lit by conical lights.

The entrance corner stones bear the inscriptions '1961' and 'HUIUS ECCLESIAE / LAPIDEM ANGULAREM / IECIT + RR DD / THOMAS HOLLAND / EPISCOPUS ETENNAE'.

A spiral staircase to the right of the entrance leads to a choir gallery fitted with pews and an organ.