Baptist Church

Catherine Street Baptist Church and Hilliard Hall form a cohesive complex with an attached covered walkway arcade and caretaker's flat, all arranged around a cobbled courtyard. The buildings are executed in a restrained neo-Georgian style and date from 1957–8, with a spire added in 1959. The complex was designed in 1955–7 by Richard Fraser of Louis de Soissons, Peacock, Hodges, Robertson and Fraser. Behind the altar is a large mural by Hans Feibusch dating from 1960. Construction was carried out by A N Coles Ltd.

Materials

The buildings are constructed from brick with roughcast render, brick facing, and local limestone for the plinths. The large windows in the church are made of reinforced concrete. The church interior has hardwood floors, wide brick-faced piers alternating with plastered panels, and church furnishings in limed oak. The hall features the same mixture of brick and render, with a terrazzo-floored entrance hall and stair, and hardwood block floor.

Plan

The church and hall face each other across a cobbled courtyard. A caretaker's flat closes the courtyard on the east side, and an open arcade of segmental arches carried on slender columns stands to the west. The church is a single open space orientated north-south, with the altar to the north and a gallery to the south. To the north and east is an annexe of small rooms providing vestries and services for the church, and to the south, facing the courtyard, is a narthex porch running the full width of the building. The caretaker's flat is a single-depth range of rooms running north-south. The Hilliard Hall is orientated east-west and consists of a high single storey with a lower range to the south running parallel to the main hall, housing school rooms, and another range of service rooms to its north. The entrance hall has a meeting room over.

The Church: Exterior

The church exterior has a pitched roof with overhanging gabled pediments to north and south carried on decoratively moulded brackets (inspired by Inigo Jones's St Paul's, Covent Garden of 1631–35), with a timber cupola and copper-clad spire at the south end. The walls are generally rendered above a plinth of coursed limestone rubble. The north wall has a full pediment created by the overhanging roofs, with a recessed circular panel at its centre. The south entrance front, which faces into the courtyard, is articulated by a wide central panel clad in two tones of brick set in a subtle diaper pattern between rendered panels, above three sets of glazed doors at the south of the narthex porch. The doors are set under a lean-to tiled porch on slender columns, leading onto the terrace and yard beyond.

The main church has tall rectangular windows of moulded concrete with pointed-arched tops and glazed spandrels forming a high clerestory, each set above smaller segmental-headed windows at ground floor level within recessed surrounds. The east side has wide tripartite windows, and the west has single lights, all of the same pattern. All windows have metal frames. The west side has a gabled stone rubble entrance porch towards its south end, housing hardwood part-glazed double doors set behind a segmental arched opening, which give entrance to the narthex porch. There is a recessed bay towards the north with a wide five-light window lighting the nave, above a projected entrance bay giving access to the annexe of ancillary rooms to the north. To the east, the body of the church is clasped at its northern end by the eastern arm of the same range.

The Church: Interior

The interior of the church consists of a nave and slightly narrower chancel, which are continuous. The wall surfaces are articulated by full-height pilasters of warm-toned brick, marking the bay structure. To the east, the space between the pilasters is filled by the five-light upper windows, with smooth plaster panels below. The west wall is similar, with the plaster panels continuing upwards to either side of the single-light windows. The chancel is clad in brick to either side of the mural recess and the east and west returns. The ceiling is cambered and tiled, and the floor is set in oak parquet.

There are eighteen rows of pews set symmetrically to either side of a central walkway. These, together with the altar, lectern and other fittings, are all original and of high quality, simply but well-crafted in limed oak, as is the large circular pulpit, which is set on a moulded concrete substructure with oak-clad concrete steps. There is a gallery to the south reached by a pair of stairs running parallel to the gallery, clad in panelled limed oak. The north wall houses a very large full-height mural depicting the Baptism of Christ by Hans Feibusch, in typical blue, yellow and orange tones. The ceiling of the sanctuary has recessed spotlighting, with the body of the church lit by chandeliers based around globes, designed by the architect. In the chancel, a hinged glazed panel in the floor gives access to the baptismal tank.

To the south, below the gallery, segmental-headed glazed doors give access to the narthex porch, which has segmental arched openings to east and west, and a continuous row of glazed doors to the courtyard. Stone plaques celebrating the long history of the congregation are set into the walls of the porch.

Hilliard Hall: Exterior

The Hilliard Hall is a high single storey with lower flat-roofed ranges set to north and south. The main block has gabled pediments matching the main church, and a similar brick panel articulating its entrance front. Otherwise, the walls are rendered above a coursed limestone rubble plinth. The main hall has regular segmental-headed windows with metal frames set as a clerestory. The lower southern range has segmental-headed doorways with metal-framed double doors leading onto a raised terrace with decorative railings, and steps to east and west.

Hilliard Hall: Interior

The building has a large entrance hall with a turning terrazzo stair rising to the meeting room above. The main hall has a hardwood parquet floor and a raised stage to the east. The room is lit by a clerestory of segmental-headed windows, above double doors opening into classrooms to the south and service rooms to the north, facing the courtyard. The walls have upright timber panelling to dado height and are further articulated by wide pilasters taking up the spaces between the windows, with a plastered finish providing a subtle contrast with the tiling in the alternate window bays. To the east end, a large internal window gives a view from the first-floor meeting room into the hall below; an elegant balconette defines the window in the hall.

Subsidiary Features

To the south of the Hilliard Hall is a paved terrace with short flights of steps to east and west. The terrace is bounded by railings fixed on detailed uprights which take a form resembling the letter R. The caretaker's flat is a single-storey, single-depth range of rooms to the west, which links the hall and church and gives access at either end to their ancillary rooms. The windows are segmental headed, to match those in the church and hall. The arcade to the west takes the form of a covered walkway with segmental arched roof sections set on slender circular columns. The arcade is closed to the roadside by late 20th-century railings. It is reached by a short flight of steps running the length of the arcade, with railings to match those to the south of the Hilliard Hall.

History

The Baptist congregation in Plymouth has a long history, formed from a group which entertained the Pilgrim Fathers before their departure from the city on the Mayflower on 6 May 1620. The early congregation met in the homes of its members, but in 1651 it took over its first house for meetings and constructed a purpose-built meeting house later in the 17th century. By 1751, this building was dilapidated and was entirely rebuilt. Expanding numbers led to a move to a house in Howe Street, which was initially rented and later purchased by the congregation. In 1844, a new site for an enlarged church in George Street was purchased, the new church being opened in the following year. School rooms were added twenty years later, and this church stood until the Second World War blitz on Plymouth, when it was destroyed during the night of 20 March 1941.

The congregation had hoped to rebuild their church on the same site, but the city council's plan for the reconstruction of the ruined heart of Plymouth necessitated the compulsory purchase of the area, requiring the congregation to find a new site for their church. The current building was designed by the Louis de Soissons Partnership, an established practice which by this time had an office in Plymouth as well as its headquarters in London and elsewhere in the regions. Construction was carried out in 1957–8. The spire, part of the original design, was added in 1959, and a large mural depicting the Baptism of Christ by the émigré artist Hans Feibusch was created in a full-height recess behind the altar in the following year. The church and its attendant hall and ancillary structures have remained almost completely unaltered since completion.

The church complex is recognized as a high-quality, carefully considered composition by the Louis de Soissons Partnership, which responds well to its site and reflects the needs of its post-war congregation. Its neo-Georgian style, inspired by Inigo Jones's St Paul's, Covent Garden (1631–35), is well handled and unites the various elements of the complex, comprising the church, church hall, courtyard, arcade and caretaker's flat. The materials and craftsmanship are of good quality, particularly notable in the interior of the church, which is enhanced by the slightly later mural by Hans Feibusch, a nationally significant mural artist of the period. The church retains all of its high-quality architect-designed fittings, such as the bespoke chandeliers, which demonstrate contemporary design principles. The Hilliard Hall is a well-crafted design which demonstrates good quality in architectural style and forms an integral part of the complex, complementing the church building. The buildings are almost completely unaltered since their completion, and the most evident addition, the spire, forms part of the architect's original design.

Catherine Street Baptist Church and the attached Hilliard Hall have group value with the adjacent Notte Street Unitarian Church (designed at the same time by the same architect), the earlier Anglican parish church of St Andrew (15th century, Grade I) and the Synagogue (18th and 19th centuries, Grade II*) which lie immediately to the north. The four buildings represent a microcosm of the range of worship in the post-war city.