Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul

This is a Gothic Revival church designed in 1854 by architects Salter and Laforest, built on land donated by Francis Jackson Kent, a solicitor from Hampton who had acquired 300 acres in the area for housing development. The church replaced an earlier parish church that had become too small for East Molesey's growing population.

The church is constructed of Kentish ragstone rubble with a slate roof featuring bands of blue and green slates. The building was completed in phases: the nave and aisles, probably designed by Samuel Salter, were finished by 24 February 1856; the south aisle was added in 1860-1; the north aisle in 1864; the nave was extended in 1870; and the tower with stone spire were added by Stephen Salter in 1887. A Parish Room was added to the north side in 1975 and a small twentieth-century organ blow room to the west end of the nave.

The plan consists of a three-bay nave with lower aisles, a lower three-bay chancel, a south porch, and a south-west tower with stone spire.

The tower rises in three stages with buttresses and crockets, and features an octagonal stair turret with a Caernarvon-arched door. The bell stage has arched openings with corbels, colonnettes and double trefoil windows with a circular opening above and wooden louvres. The stone spire is decorated with lucarnes, a band of circles, and a copper weathervane. The west end of the nave has a large traceried window. The aisles feature traceried windows separated by buttresses. The south porch is gabled with a triple trefoliated window to the east, an arch with ball flower moulding and colonnettes, pierced wooden gates, and a tiled floor. The chancel has trefoliated lancets to north and south and a large traceried east window.

The interior contains an arch-braced roof to the nave and aisles, supported on floral-carved corbels. The arcade features pointed arches and octagonal granite columns with stiffleaf capitals. An internal wood and stained glass porch dates from around 1910. An octagonal pulpit of 1864 has arches and marble colonnettes. The nave retains original box pews and encaustic tiled floors to the centre and ends.

The baptistery beneath the tower contains a font and three Kempe stained glass windows of 1891 depicting John the Baptist, Moses and the Crucifixion. A Gothic-style wall memorial to the Kent family is also located here. The west end of the north aisle features a War Memorial in the form of an archway with altar and painted canvas (initialled LDS and RTC) depicting St George rescuing a maiden of Flanders, with smaller scenes showing the White Cliffs of Dover and a ruined town. The east end of the north aisle contains an Epiphany scene with Kempe stained glass. Glass in the east end of the south aisle may be by Lavers and Westlake. The south aisle also contains a Resurrection window by Mayer and co. of Munich. The south-east Lady Chapel, formerly the organ loft, has cast-iron gates.

A large chancel arch with two tiers of columns separates the nave from the chancel. The chancel screen has a lower part of stone with marble colonnettes and elaborate metal railings above, with central gates. The chancel has an arch-braced roof with a decorated band featuring quatrefoils and crenellations. Original choir stalls remain. Wooden sedilia are positioned on the south wall and a marble piscina on the north wall. Fine encaustic tiles and mosaics are located behind the altar. The east window dates from 1866 and was made by Lavers and Westlake.

The original organ was purchased from the London Polytechnic in the 1860s but was removed in 1961.