Church of St James

Church of St James

The Church of St James on Christchurch Road, Pokesdown is a mid-19th century church with later additions. The eastern half of the nave, chancel and south porch were designed by George Edmund Street in 1858. A north aisle was added in 1870, also to Street's design. The nave was extended westward by Charles Marriott Oldrid Scott between 1928 and 1931, with a north chapel and vestry added at the same time.

The church is built of squared and coursed grey sandstone from Lytchett near Poole, with brown ironstone banding and Bath and Purbeck stone dressings. The roofs are tiled in clay. The building plan consists of a five-bay nave, a short chancel with four-sided apse, a four-bay north aisle with transept, north chapel, south vestry and organ chamber, further vestry and sacristy to the north-east, and a hall to the west of the north aisle.

The exterior presents a long, low building with an unbroken expanse of roof over the nave, with the horizontal lines emphasised by brown ironstone banding against the pale grey limestone walls. The banding appears also in the window voussoirs. A low gabled south porch with sloped buttresses provides the approach from the street. The section west of the porch dates from the 1928-31 enlargement. The tracery is Early English, with two nave windows having three lights with foiled circles above. One of these windows, positioned west of the porch, was relocated here during the 1928-31 works to make room for the organ loft. At the south-east end of the nave is a double gabled projection comprising a churchwardens' vestry to the east (probably of 1870) and a matching organ loft to its west (1928-31). The Lady chapel north of the apse (1928-31) features a three-light east window set in a canted bay with stone roof, with a low vestry of the same date to its north.

The interior nave comprises five bays, but the arcade to the north aisle contains only four bays, with broad arches and ironstone banding matching the exterior. The eastern respond has two slim polished granite shafts set against the pier. The first and second piers feature circular stone columns with very wide crocketed capitals of French inspiration. The third pier to the west is broad and rectangular, cut from the solid wall to form the western arch when the nave was lengthened in 1928-31. The walls are of rock-faced squared limestone. The apse contains four closely-set windows with plate tracery and granite shafts joined at the abaci. The chancel arch has similar shafts in its responds. The chancel roof features close-set semicircular trusses with painted patterns, and over the apse, plainer boarding painted blue with gilded stars. Over the nave, the roofs are five-sided in section and have tie-beams with crown posts. The polished wood floors are of recent renewal, and the chancel is carpeted (the original surface was Minton encaustic tiles).

The principal fixtures include original deal seating. A plain marble reredos of 1858 features a raised square centre with a standing figure of the Good Shepherd above. Against the base of the chancel arch on the south side stands the pulpit, rectangular in plan with simple detailing, a pierced trefoil in the front, and a polished granite shaft inset on the angle. The font is square in plan and massive in bulk, sitting on four short granite shafts with crocketed capitals; between them a small arch breaks into the bowl in the centre of each side, with stone shafts articulating the angles. The organ case of 1931 is of light oak with classical detailing.

The church contains notable stained glass. The apse has four windows of 1858, possibly by Clayton & Bell, who designed the window west of the main door (1863). The Walcott memorial east of the entrance is a particularly fine example, dating to 1870. The west window contains richly coloured glass by Mayer of Munich, dated 1884. The north aisle windows are all by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake: that at the east dates to 1873, and two further windows to 1885.

Subsidiary features include a utilitarian sacristy of 1958 adjoining the north wall of the north transept. The north and west sides of the church are obscured by a large western annexe by Rex Brown (1966) and a lean-to addition of 1995. On the forecourt to the south-west stands a substantial First World War memorial cross, with schools by Street to the west, dating to 1857 and much altered and enlarged.

The Church of St James was a daughter church to St Peter, Bournemouth, which Street had rebuilt in 1855 for the Reverend Alexander Morden Bennett, a wealthy and committed Tractarian. St James was constructed to Street's design in 1858, the first of at least nineteen Bournemouth churches stemming from St Peter by around 1900. The design was published in The Ecclesiologist in 1855. A projected tower and spire were never built. The church was consecrated on 23 December 1858. The builder was H.C Tucker of Christchurch, and the cost was £1750. The Ecclesiologist reported in 1866: "We have seldom seen a better cheap church than this."

George Edmund Street (1824-1881) was one of the greatest Victorian architects and a leading figure of the Gothic Revival. Born and educated in London, he was articled to the Winchester architect Owen Carter from 1841. From 1844 he worked in the office of George Gilbert Scott before commencing practice in Wantage in 1848. Growing success led to a move to London in 1856. His work is characterised by a strong, muscular quality much admired from the 1850s onwards, and he was a pioneer of polychromy. His most ambitious work is the Royal Courts of Justice in London, commissioned in 1868. He served as diocesan architect for Oxford, York, Winchester and Ripon, and was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1874. Like his former master Scott, Street's fame and status is reflected in his burial at Westminster Abbey.

Charles Marriott Oldrid Scott (1880-1952) was the son of John Oldrid Scott and grandson of Sir George Gilbert Scott. He was articled to Reginald Blomfield in 1898 and returned to his father's practice in 1902. Between 1903 and 1904 he worked for G.F Bodley before returning to his father's office as partner in 1904. He gained few commissions for new buildings but undertook considerable church restoration and enlargement work, including completing the spires of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, and work at Selby Abbey.