Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul

This church was built between 1789 and 1794 to the design of Daniel Hague, with a chancel added in 1894 by J Bevan. It is constructed in Bath stone ashlar in the Gothick style.

The plan consists of an aisled nave, sanctuary and flanking vestries, with north and south porches and a west tower. The chancel has clasping pilasters with panelled pinnacles, a parapet and a 5-light Perpendicular window. The raised sacristy gable features clasping pilasters of 2 panels with rounded ends separated by a sunken lozenge, a parapet with crenellations above a cornice to the sides, and square panelled pinnacles with ogee gablets and finials. The north side displays 2 large trefoil windows, while the blank east ends of the vestries have doorways with depressed ogee arches, parapets and clasping pilasters.

The nave sides are arranged in 2 bays with Y-tracery windows. The papered east nave gable has a louvred quatrefoil below the apex and pilaster buttresses with crenellated pinnacles either side, along with similar clasping pilasters with gableted pinnacles at the corners. The 4-bay north aisle features 3-light windows with intersecting tracery, separated by pilasters rising through the cornice to pinnacles with a crenellated parapet. The porches have panelled pilasters, Y-tracery windows and depressed ogee-arched doors.

The symmetrical west front contains a central tower of 3 diminishing stages divided by panelled bands. The tower has clasping pilasters of panels separated by sunken quatrefoils and lozenges. The trefoil-headed west doorway features an ogee hood in a tall, continuously moulded pointed arch with a fluted tympanum. Similarly styled 2-light windows appear to the north and south, with 3-light ogee-arched windows above them, blind below the transom and with acanthus finials. The second stage contains a clock set in a gable hood between 2 diagonally-set buttresses within a sunken pointed panel. The belfry windows are ogees with Y-tracery. An open balustrade in 3 sections with corner pinnacles marks the top of the tower. Above are 2 further square stages sharply set back to form the spire, with diagonal buttresses, pinnacles, parapets and Y-traceried windows with finials between pinnacle buttresses. An octagonal spirelet panelled like the pinnacles tops the structure. The west end either side of the tower has tall lancets with Y-tracery and a panelled transom below a raking battlement. The ends of the aisles have panelled pilasters and a tall central buttress feature topped by a pinnacle, with a blind lancet with interlacing below the transom.

The interior chancel of 1894 contains a panelled reredos with central carving of a lamb and 3 sedilia with flat partitions and canopies above. Doors either side of the sacristy have elliptical-arched heads, crocketed pinnacles and an ogee hood. The sacristy arch is pointed with a panelled soffit and rocaille plasterwork to the spandrels. The 4-bay nave arcade comprises tall columns with anthemion capitals, with a fluted cove and a ceiling divided by panelled bands with central roses and rocaille in the spandrels. The narthex has a cornice and octagonal ceiling panel, a niche on an angel corbel with an octagonal canopy with crenellated top, over an ogee doorway to the nave with 2-leaf panelled door and pointed-arch panels.

Fittings include an octagonal marble pulpit with ogee panels and a ramped wrought-iron and brass rail; a sword rest of 1802 with a crown and heraldic devices; an octagonal font with tracery panels; and a deep west gallery on octagonal shafts with crenellated capitals. The ogee-panelled transoms in the aisle windows mark where the original side galleries were located.

Among the memorials are various late 18th and 19th century wall tablets, and a wall memorial on the north side of the sacristy to Colonel Thomas Vassal (died 1807), executed by Flaxman. This shows a seated figure of Victory beside a palm tree with a shield inscribed Montevideo, set in a recessed bay between pinnacles.

Daniel Hague was involved in the promotion of Portland Square and claimed to have designed the tower after Jerman's Royal Exchange in London. The church forms a vital part of many views across the city and represents an eminently successful piece of townscape.