Christ Church

Christ Church is a church built between 1795 and 1798, with later alterations, designed by John Palmer. It is a building of group value, recognized for its contribution to the surrounding area. The church is constructed primarily of limestone ashlar, with rubble to the north side, and has double Roman tile and slate roofs. Leaded windows are consistent throughout.

The building’s plan is rectangular, with a projecting west tower and flanking porches. The architectural style is Gothick. The east end features a nine-sided, semicircular apse with an ornamental bracketed eaves cornice, a continuous impost string course, and pointed arched recesses with shallow pointed arched stained glass windows and star-shaped recesses above. A moulded sill string course runs along the base. The main block is encircled by a parapet with moulded coping and merlons, each with a shield flanked by diagonal, crocketed finials atop off-set buttresses. Carved animals are dynamically placed over the buttresses beneath the parapet. Clasping buttresses at the corners support corbelled crenellated octagonal turrets. Tall, three-light windows with interlaced tracery are located above the galleries (two to the right are stained glass). Lower, three-light ground floor windows feature label moulds to flat arches; three to the left have elaborate carved panels of shields in quatrefoils flanking panels of cusped diagonal crosses below the lights. A shallow, gabled porch with steps leads up to double planked doors, set under a moulded pointed arch and hoodmould.

The west tower is in four stages, with shallow clasping pilasters leading to a coved cornice and crenellated parapet topped with crosses on simple obelisk finials. Continuous hoodmoulds top the two-light louvered openings, and a string course runs below the sills. The third stage has a clock on the south side and recessed quatrefoil panels on the other facets. The second stage features an impost string, level with that of the nave, over tall, two-light pointed arched windows (blind to the west front). Steps lead up to planked double doors within a slightly projecting, coped gabled porch with a panelled intrados to a pointed arch. Elaborate scrolled brackets support octagonal lamps flanking this doorway. Single-storey porches flank the tower with lean-to slate roofs and pierced, cusped triangles to their parapets and buttresses. Small windows are set between the tower and the west end of the nave. The upper windows flanking the tower have more elaborate tracery. The north side is similar but simpler in design.

The interior was not inspected during assessment. Christ Church was originally built to provide free places for the poor of Bath, with 800 places on the ground floor, while seats in the galleries were let to generate income. It was consecrated on November 7, 1798. Galleries were lowered in 1844 and the western porches were added by Thomas Fuller in 1855. The apse was added in 1866, and the church was reopened on June 21, 1866. The parapet was rebuilt around 1904 by Wallace Gill.