Church Of St Katherine

Church of St Katharine, Southbourne

The Church of St Katharine is a large Anglican church comprising the western three bays of the nave and aisles designed by Alfred Birt and built in 1881-2, with two further bays of the nave and aisles, chancel, vestries and north transept added in 1899-1900.

The building is constructed of grey coursed Purbeck rubble with limestone dressings and has tiled roofs. The plan consists of a five-bay nave with lean-to aisles, a north porch, a chancel with a transeptal organ chamber to the north, and low vestries to the south.

The exterior is plain and severe in Early English style. Both aisles and clerestory have widely spaced single lancets. The west gable contains a pair of two-light windows with tracery and a statue in a niche between them, with a west entrance beneath unadorned by porch or embellishment. The east end has three stepped lancets with continuous hoodmould. The transeptal organ chamber features a bellcote on the gable and paired north windows.

The interior has aisle lights and east windows treated alike with moulded rere-arches joined by a string course, and Early English style shafts of dark grey stone in the jambs. The west windows and clerestory lights have no internal mouldings or shafts. The walls are plastered and painted, while the arcades are of Bath stone. The nave arcades consist of five bays with double-chamfered arches on alternating octagonal and cylindrical piers. The nave has an open roof with collar beams, while the chancel roof is canted and boarded. The chancel is remarkably old fashioned for a design of 1899.

The original reredos was replaced in 1916 with a Late Perpendicular oak reredos with figures carved in Paris, added in 1918. The high altar of 1905 is striking, with a pierced traceried front including a large rose in the centre. A font of Caen stone on a Portland base with marble columns was designed by Birt in 1905. It is octagonal with carved panels, and has an ogee openwork cover of 1907 carved by Mr Bower. The pulpit of 1903 was made by the firm of J.W. Mennell, of Caen stone with Ashburton marble and figures added in 1907. A large hanging rood was added in 1927, carved in the Austrian Tyrol. The stained glass is mostly by A.L. Moore from circa 1895 to the 1920s, including the south chancel west and east windows, five windows in the south aisle, and the west windows which form a War Memorial. One window at the north-west was designed by C.E. Kempe in 1884. The chancel was reordered circa 1996-7 with pale oak altar rails, a nave altar and new choir stalls. Moveable seats were installed throughout the nave and aisles, probably at about the same date. An Arts and Crafts bronze inscription by Harold Stabler commemorates Mary Buxton (died 1916).

To the south were a church hall and vicarage, both of 1904-8 by G.A. Bligh Livesay, built of brick in William and Mary style. These were replaced in 1973 by a new vicarage and a church centre designed by Chapman Partnership in 1992.

Southbourne was developed from the 1870s by Dr Thomas Armetriding Compton, who purchased 230 acres of desolate heathland on the clifftops east of Bournemouth. He provided a small temporary church-school opened on 1 July 1876 and gave the site for a permanent church. The architect, Alfred Birt of East Dulwich, London, was his brother-in-law. The foundation stone of the nave was laid on 7 June 1881, and the completed nave was dedicated on 30 May 1882. The church was consecrated in 1886 and the parish was formed in 1887, separated from St James Pokesdown. The east end was added in 1899-1900. St Katharine was one of many High Anglican churches established in Bournemouth during the late 19th century.