Church Of St Matthew

The Church of St Matthew is a church built between 1833 and 1835 by architect Thomas Rickman, located on Clare Road in Cotham, Bristol. It features a design in the Perpendicular Gothic Revival style, constructed from pennant rubble with limestone dressings. The building includes an aisled nave and a west tower, with the roof not visible.

At the eastern end, there is a prominent large 6-light transomed window, flanked by octagonal ashlar corner turrets that have trefoil-panelled crenellated parapets. The aisle doors are 4-centred arched and ribbed, accompanied by narrow trefoiled one-light windows. The north aisle consists of five bays, each with 3-light transomed windows separated by thin buttresses, topped with an ashlar crenellated parapet. The clerestory windows have two lights and are blind below the transom, with a parapet above. The south aisle mirrors this design.

The west front features a central four-stage tower with diagonal buttresses and an octagonal southwest stair turret, which tapers sharply at weathered stages to a slender spirelet. It has a 4-centred door set in a label with foliage in the spandrels, a two-light transomed window on the second stage, and a round, blind panel on the third stage. The belfry windows are tall, two-light, louvred with transoms and cinquefoil heads, and there is a cornice parapet with pinnacles. The aisle doors are 4-centred and panelled, with the south door blocked to create a half-blind window.

Inside, the church has a four-bay arcade supported by thin, square-section chamfered shafts leading to wide 4-centred arches. Niches with corbelled bases and crocketed ogee hoods and finials are located between the arches, and there is a flat, panelled ceiling. A mezzanine was added around 1989 at the height of the original galleries, with stairs leading up from the west. The bottoms of the columns are enclosed, and offices and meeting rooms are situated below, while services are held in the upper part.