Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart is a Grade II listed building in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole local planning authority area, England. First listed on 1 August 1974. Church.
Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart
- WRENN ID
- brooding-brick-vermeil
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
- Constituency
- Bournemouth West MP: Jessica Toale (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 1 August 1974
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, Albert Road
- OS grid reference
- SZ 086 912
- Coordinates
- 50.72105, -1.87872
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart was built between 1872 and 1874 by Henry Clutton and was enlarged and externally remodeled from 1896 to 1898 by A J Pilkington. The interior largely retains Clutton's design, featuring three-bay arcades supported by Early French double-columns with shaft-rings and simplified capitals. The crossing arches are similar, with clustered columns resting on foliage corbels. The north aisle includes transverse half-arches that act as buttresses, while the south aisle has gables set at right angles. The nave roof is boarded and features large kingposts.
The east end, designed by Pilkington, includes a short chancel with a panelled marble east wall that serves as a backdrop for a reredos by P P Pugin, which is topped with three spirelets over statues and eight smaller niches. The altar rail, possibly designed by Clutton, has an unusual Renaissance style with openwork brass foliage and white marble portrait medallions of Jesuit saints, arranged in a shallow bow. The north chapel features a tieceron vault and a Spanish Gothic altar dedicated to the Assumption, created in 1921-1922. The south chapel has a wooden vault and another canopied reveal.
Externally, the tower, designed by Clutton, is made of buff brick and stone, featuring straight-headed transomed and traceried belfry windows, a cornice with globules, and a pyramid spire made of banded slate. The rest of the church, designed by Pilkington, is constructed from rock-faced Portland stone, except for Clutton's aisle gables, which display Perpendicular tracery. The chancel has a windowless gable with canopied niches, set on a high basement, which is part of the Catholic Institute.
The Presbytery and the Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart form a group.
Local climate
Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart receives an average of 870 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 62% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 7 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 96% of listed buildings. Of these, 3 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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