Roman Catholic Church of St Mary on the Quay

Catholic apostolic chapel, now a Roman Catholic church, of 1839-43 by Richard Shackleton Pope.

MATERIALS: limestone ashlar. The roof has modern coverings. Interior fittings are constructed of timber, stone and marble.

PLAN: cruciform plan with sanctuary at the west end (ritual east).

EXTERIOR: in the Greek Revival style of the Order from the Lysicratic monument in Athens. The church has a hexastyle portico of Greek Corinthian columns on a raised, vermiculated stylobate, with a dentil pediment inscribed on the entablature VIVAT CHRISTUS REX. Above the pediment is a stone cross. The Corinthian columns are deeply fluted. The distyle-in-antis inner porch is reached by two converging flights of steps. The large central doorway has a battered, eared architrave and cornice, and there are plain doorways in the returns with a six-over-six pane timber sash above. Lower, parapeted flanking blocks are set back, and rusticated to the height of large, moulded blank recesses between paired Doric pilasters, with low doorways below. The recess to the right has a fixed statue of the Madonna and Child. The rusticated walls break forward to the street, meeting short continuations of the stylobate. To the centre of the front face of the stylobate is inscribed CHURCH OF ST MARY ON THE QUAY, and there is a bronze First World War Roll of Honour plaque below: A.M.D.G./ 545 MEN OF ST MARY'S SCHOOL AND CONGREGATION/ JOINED UP IN THE GREAT WAR. 67 LOST THEIR LIVES./ ROLL OF HONOUR/ (NAMES)/ MAY THEY REST IN PEACE. The transepts are pedimented. The aisle flanks are of five bays with tall, narrow, square-headed windows with glazing bars.

INTERIOR: the five-bay nave is lit by tall narrow windows with timber margin glazing. The nave has C20 timber pews and moulded doorways below the south windows. The chancel is top-lit with a decorative ceiling with gilded plasterwork and dentil cornicing. At the rear of the chancel is an ornate altar with domed tabernacle by J.F. Bentley. The stepped floor of the chancel is covered in parquet veneer. The galleried (ritual) north transept is arranged as a side chapel with a marble font with timber lid and wrought-ironwork by G.E. Street. The (ritual) south transept is also a side chapel.

The gallery at the ritual west end is supported on two fluted cast-iron Doric columns. There are stone winder stairs to the gallery from both sides, and from the side doors in the portico, and have decorative ironwork gates and grilles. Both gallery doors are within panelled vestibules, with a piscina set in the wall to one side. The five rows of carved timber pews are raked have hinged kneeling rests.

The nave ceiling has a rectangular design with a roundel motif incorporating the fixings for the nave lighting. Above the chancel arch is painted AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM.