Charles Church

PLYMOUTH

SX4854 CHARLES CROSS, Plymouth 740-1/58/359 Charles Church 25/01/54

GV I

Parish church ruin. 1640-1658, one of very few established churches built during the Commonwealth, tower completed 1708, the present stone spire replacing a wooden one in 1766, 2 small C19 accretions, interior refitted 1828-29 by JH Ball (now lost); gutted during the Blitz and now preserved as a symbolic ruin and war memorial at the centre of a major roundabout. Plymouth limestone ashlar with granite dressings; ashlar spire to tower. STYLE: Gothic Survival style with elaborate Perpendicular detail except for the E chancel window which has Decorated detail with rose tracery. PLAN: nave/chancel, N and S aisles and W tower. EXTERIOR: buttresses with finials dividing the bays; traceried windows with hoodmoulds; the E window particularly fine; 4-centred arched doorways with square hoodmoulds. 3-stage tower with offset corner buttresses; strings dividing the diminishing stages; round-arched 3-light upper-stage windows with simple tracery; octagonal spire behind a parapet with moulded cornice and square corner pinnacles with pineapple finials. INTERIOR: arcades with standard A (Pevsner) piers and depressed arches. Many wall monuments. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 641).

Listing NGR: SX4821654603

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 8 December 2016.