Cathedral Church of SS Peter and Paul

Cathedral Church of SS Peter and Paul

Roman Catholic Cathedral in Clifton, Bristol, built 1969-73 to the designs of Ronald Weeks, E S Jennett and Antoni Poremba of the Percy Thomas Partnership.

The building is constructed of pre-cast concrete panels and in-situ concrete, with lead-clad pitched roofs stepped between tiled flat roofs. It is set over a car parking area in the sub-basement. The plan is an irregular, elongated hexagon with the west door set in one of the longer flanks and the altar and sanctuary positioned almost, but not quite, in the centre of the building on axis with this entrance.

Polygonal board-marked concrete piers flank the St Peter and Paul's doors facing Clifton Park and Pembroke Road, and mark the corner between these doors. A raised walkway with board-marked concrete balustrade leads to each entrance. The exterior composition consists of offset, superimposed, part-hexagons rising in three layers to culminate in the smallest hexagon above the sanctuary. This has pairs of irregular hexagonal windows with lead surrounds to three sides at the base. From this smallest hexagon rises a tall lead roof of irregular pyramidal form, with inset panels of glazing to the liturgical west. At its apex rises a spire comprising three linked ribbed concrete uprights, one taller than the others and of triangular section with a bevelled top. The west door is sheltered by a heavy projecting board-marked concrete canopy.

The dramatic interior features board-marked concrete to the walls and deep upstand beams of the roof and galleries. Pyramidal timber acoustic cones are set in the lower ceilings. Complex natural top-lighting illuminates the space above and behind the sanctuary and the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, which is separated by a screen designed by Brother Patrick of Prinknash Abbey. The narthex walls are inset with stained glass by Henry Haig. The narthex opens into the baptistry area, which contains a font of Portland stone by Simon Verity. The Stations of the Cross are low relief panels of light-weight cast concrete, each worked in one and a half hours by William Mitchell. His original doors were replaced with clear glass around 1995, but the lectern made by him to Weeks's design remains.

A new cathedral in Clifton was commissioned in 1965 to supersede the Pro-Cathedral (already listed) of the 1830s. The Percy Thomas Partnership produced a powerful and dramatic building that represents perhaps the most important work of one of Britain's largest post-war architectural practices. Clifton is often described as the first cathedral in the world to accord completely with the liturgical guidelines issued by the Vatican in November 1963. Its planning is more succinct and successful than that at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral because it places the altar to one side with a horseshoe of seating for the congregation. This arrangement quickly became a preferred alternative to the notion of seating entirely in the round because of the clearer view it gave everybody of the celebration. Built in a remarkably short space of time to a low budget of £600,000, Clifton Cathedral achieves a rare integration of materials and spatial quality remarkable for a cathedral of any period. George Perkin in Concrete Quarterly (January 1974, p. 23) described it as having "a remarkable serenity and delight" coupled with "an apparent simplicity". Mary Haddock in Building (20/27 December 1974, p.43) admired "the hint of theatre in the design; the absence of clutter and garish church ornament; the fine materials and the use of colour; the cold design in stained glass - ... a heart-lifting Christian temple, inspiring reverence but not awe. A sermon in concrete." The Cathedral won the Concrete Society Award for 1974.