Church Of Our Lady And St Alphege, With Attached Presbytery

This Roman Catholic church and presbytery were designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The church opened in July 1929 and was consecrated in 1954, marking 1,000 years since the birth of the patron saint, Alphege. The presbytery was completed in 1958. Internal carvings are largely by William Drinkwater Gough.

Materials

The building is constructed of Bath stone rubble from the Box quarries, with pitched roofs covered in Roman tiles imported from Lombardy, Italy. Stone for the pillars came from Leckhampton, near Cheltenham.

Plan

The church follows a severe Early Christian basilican plan with a nave and west gallery, a chancel with blind apsidal sanctuary flanked by a Lady Chapel and sacristy, an open narthex, and the base of a campanile (the upper portion was never built).

Exterior

The entrance front (north-east) features a triple-arched open loggia raised by one step. Sturdy columns with Byzantine-style capitals support flush arches under a lean-to roof. Above plain walling runs a vertical band set flush at impost level. The recessed centre contains three large arched recesses, each with a small arched light with sunken surround and plain stone sills at seat height. A large oculus with rectangular iron armature sits in the gable above. To the left stands a large square campanile base with a single narrow arched light.

Each side elevation has ten slender round-arched lights to the clerestory and seven oculi to the aisles, all severely plain in detail with iron armatures and recessed surrounds. Deep overhanging eaves and verges complete the roofline. To the rear (south-west), the otherwise blind apse is articulated by a round-arched arcade of detached columns set under the eaves, clearly intended to be visible from the railway beyond.

Interior

The interior is severely plain with unplastered walls in the nave. Six-bay arcades are carried on columns with carved capitals depicting subjects from the life of Our Lady on the right and St Alphege on the left. Capitals supporting the choir and organ loft depict persons associated with the church's design and construction, including Scott himself. The floor consists of small pieces of linoleum arranged in the manner of a tessellated marble floor. The roof comprises king-post trusses with purlins and boarding.

At the rear, a deep gallery completed in 1960 is carried on two columns and responds, with an open wood balustrade front. The chancel is raised on one plus two steps, with the sanctuary beyond raised a further three steps. The baldacchino over the altar is of gilded oak, carved by Stuflesser of Ortisei and decorated by Watts of London. A stone tabernacle stands in the apse.

The aisles have simple lean-to roofs. The south aisle continues through as the Lady Chapel, featuring a prominent carved and gilt figure of Virgin and Child in a vesica piscis behind the altar, designed by Scott in 1954 and carved by Hertfordshire-based Austrian sculptor Theodore Kern. The corresponding position on the north contains an enclosed sacristy with a door through to the chancel.

The campanile base is a plain square room, formerly used as a baptistery, with deep arched recesses and a door to the presbytery. Throughout, doors are generally of heavy oak in small square panels. The nave has pews and the aisles have chairs. A new lighting system was installed in 1986, but the church retains Scott's original wooden hanging lamp holders in the form of golden 'sunburst' disks carved with a cross in relief.

Presbytery

The presbytery, to the south-east, is linked to the campanile base by a wing with a tripartite window above a shallow segmental open arch spanning a small stream. The presbytery comprises a long range with a short central T-arm to the right, set gable to street. All windows are steel casements with both horizontal and margin-bars, set to flush plain lintels and sills, with rounded mullions.

The front (south-west) gable has a tripartite light at first floor and French doors below. The long left return has five tripartite lights; the central one at first floor has a door to a flat balcony roof. To the right, set back, is a lean-to wing with a tripartite light, behind which is a short gabled wing. The link corridor retains a plank and stud door.

Historical Context

The Church of Our Lady and St Alphege was built to serve Bath's growing Catholic population during the 1920s. At that time, the city's Catholics were served by both secular and regular clergy: the secular clergy served the Church of St Mary in Julian Road to the north, whilst the Benedictine community at Downside served the Priory Church of St John the Evangelist in the central South Parade. A site in Oldfield Park, alongside the railway in the south of the city, was selected for the new church.

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), who was then working on the nave of the Abbey Church of St Gregory the Great at Downside Abbey (completed 1925, listed at Grade I), was commissioned to design the church. Scott established himself as one of Britain's most accomplished and sophisticated ecclesiastic architects, designing for both Anglican and Roman Catholic parishes. His most famous commission, Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral (listed at Grade I), was a massive undertaking that occupied Scott throughout his life. It was consecrated in 1924, but construction continued after Scott's death, finally being completed in 1980. Scott also designed many secular buildings, including Battersea and Bankside Power Stations in London (the former listed at Grade II*), and the K6 telephone box to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935.

The London-based sculptor William Drinkwater Gough was responsible for the stone carving within the church. He collaborated with Scott on several commissions including the Abbey Church in Ampleforth, North Yorkshire (listed at Grade II), the Church of St Bartholomew in Brighton (listed at Grade I), and Liverpool Cathedral.

The Church of Our Lady and St Alphege was Scott's first essay in the Early Christian style which became fashionable in the early part of the 20th century for both Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. Scott's design was inspired by a recent visit to the continent, particularly by the Roman basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome (circa 780). He was very much involved in all aspects of the design of both church and presbytery from 1927 through to the 1950s. In later years, Scott described the Church of Our Lady and St Alphege as 'one of my favourite works....' and '.... this little gem of a church'.

The nave and chancel were completed in two years and the Church of Our Lady and St Alphege opened in 1929, initially as a chapel of ease; it was not consecrated until 1954. Work on the remainder of the church, including the organ gallery (designed by Scott in 1954 and built in 1960) and the presbytery and its link corridor, proceeded throughout the 1950s, all to Scott's designs. He was heavily involved in this second phase of building. The former parish hall to the north-west, replaced by a new building in 2010, was designed by a local Bristol architect. The church and its attendant presbytery have remained almost entirely unaltered since their completion in November 1960.