Church Of St Swithun

Church of St Swithun

This church on Gervis Road was designed by the celebrated architect Richard Norman Shaw. The chancel was built in 1876-7, followed by the nave in 1891-2. Vestries and associated structures were added by H.E. Hawker around 1913. The building is constructed of coursed grey rubble with limestone dressings and has blue slate roofs.

The plan consists of a broad aisleless four-bay nave, a deep chancel, an organ chamber housed in the base of an uncompleted north tower, a north chapel of two bays, and low vestries and sacristy to the north-east. Foundations for aisles appear to have been laid but the aisles themselves were never built.

The exterior is dominated by an enormous eleven-light west window with flowing Decorated tracery, positioned between two deep buttresses. Beneath it is a low narthex, which was formerly the main entrance. The lower sides of the nave are windowless, while the upper nave features two-light windows set beneath broad blank arches. The north side of the church is now somewhat incoherent in appearance. A stubby battlemented tower sits where a transept would normally be located; a bellhood is positioned high on its east face. Early 21st century additions in neutral roughcast render stand to the west of the tower. Low vestries stand to the east, with a high narrow north chapel rising behind them, which has two simple lancets in its north wall. The chancel projects a further two bays, with Geometrical windows of two lights on the north and south sides, and five lights at the east. The south side presents forbidding chancel and nave walls unscreened by any additions.

The interior features an exceptionally broad and uninterrupted nave described as "barn-like" in character. The timber-panelled roof forms a pointed wagon vault, with iron ties at the wall plates, a design derived from Shaw's Holy Trinity in Latimer Road, London. The narthex opens into the church through a wide segmental arch flanked by two narrow lancet openings. The piers between these openings continue upward as wall shafts and become the main mullions of the great west window—an individual touch. The window jambs likewise continue downward to connect with the narthex openings. The orientation of the nave has been reversed, with seating now facing west and the narthex serving as a space for musicians. A full-immersion baptistery is sunk into the floor at the west end. After 1999, a glass-and-oak internal porch was installed at the north-west entrance. The north-east contains the recessed tower base housing an organ gallery (now empty) with partitioned rooms beneath. The north side of the chancel features a two-bay arcade with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches, opening into a tall chapel, the lower part of which has been divided off as a kitchen. A low breast wall to the chancel formerly carried a wrought-iron chancel screen. The chancel arch is raised high on slim semi-octagonal responds. The chancel roof has collar-beam trusses and windbraces against white-painted plaster. The original nave floor and its iron supports had become unsafe by 1999 and were completely rebuilt with oak parquet relaid. The chancel is floored with plain quarry tiles.

The large reredos was designed by Shaw and carved by Thomas Earp. It features an elaborate alabaster frame with cusping and stylised foliage, and Caen stone reliefs of the Crucifixion framed by four smaller scenes—the Via Dolorosa and Gethsemane on the left, and the Resurrection and Ascension on the right. Panels of Spanish-looking tiles by Maw & Co stand to the sides. The very open wrought-iron chancel screen was probably also designed by Shaw and was made by Singer & Sons of Frome. It was resited after 1999 a few feet in front of the reredos, with the space behind now used for storage. Notable stained glass includes work by Burlison & Grylls in the chancel from the 1880s, and glass by Kempe in the north chapel east from 1902.

The church sits on a pine-planted triangle between Manor Road and Gervis Road. South-east of the chancel stands a half-timbered church hall dating to around 1895, which is listed separately at Grade II.

St Swithun was one of two central Bournemouth churches designed by Richard Norman Shaw in the 1870s (the other being St Michael). It was created as part of the Reverend Alexander Morden Bennett's long campaign of High Anglican church building in Bournemouth, which began in 1851 with his own church of St Peter, the mother church of St Swithun. The east end opened in 1872, and the nave in 1892 (foundation stone laid 2 April 1891). By the 1990s the church was disused and deteriorating, with most fittings removed by the Diocese of Winchester before 1999. It was then leased by Bournemouth Family (later Citygate) Church, an independent evangelical organisation which subsequently purchased the building. The interior was re-floored, additions were built to the north, remaining fittings were moved to the sanctuary, and the orientation was reversed. Shaw's design bears few hallmarks of his characteristic style, and it is difficult to determine what effect he intended to achieve; as the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner observed, "The motifs appear a little recherché, as if Shaw had aimed at the unexpected."

Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912) was one of the most influential British architects of the 19th century. After studying in Edinburgh, he worked for William Burn and then G.E. Street, designing High Victorian Gothic churches. With Eden Nesfield he developed an interest in the vernacular houses of the Sussex Weald during the 1860s, and in the Queen Anne revival of the 1870s. His late works were executed in a heavier Classical style which influenced Edwardian Baroque. He became a Royal Academician in 1877.