Church Of St Mark

CHURCH OF ST MARK

The Church of St Mark stands at the junction of St Mark's Avenue and London Road in Salisbury. The building was designed by Joseph A. Reeve of London and constructed in two principal phases: the chancel, south chapel, transepts and one bay of the nave were built between 1892 and 1894, with the nave extended by a further four bays plus a western narthex around 1914 to 1915. A south porch was added in 1922. A utilitarian annexe designed by C.E. Moss of Moss & Denham was constructed in 1969. A planned massive tower was never completed above the nave roof ridge.

The church is constructed of greenish-grey coursed stone, possibly Upper Greensand ragstone similar to that used at Mere in Wiltshire, finished with a rock-faced treatment. The roofs are slate, except for the 1960s annexe which is of buff brick.

The church follows a cruciform plan with a five-bay nave and aisles, a western narthex with flanking spaces (gallery stairs to the north and a baptistery to the south), transepts, a crossing tower, and a two-bay chancel with a south chapel. Stairs to a crypt are positioned on the north side of the chancel. A substantial south porch projects from the south aisle, and the annexe extends alongside the north aisle.

The Church of St Mark represents an ambitious achievement in the Late Free Gothic style, measuring 160 feet in length and completed for approximately £5,000, a modest budget for a church of the 1890s. The base of the projected tower features a low cap roof. The substantial nave is lit by a full clerestory with two windows per bay, served by lean-to aisles. The composition is framed by turrets and buttresses, which flank the prominent south porch where a statue of the Virgin and Child stands above the entrance. All window openings are four-centred with elaborately cusped tracery, each window displaying individual design. The aisle windows feature blind traceried panels at their bases. Both the east and west gables are flanked by Tudorish turrets. The west end displays double entrance doors beneath a small pent roof, with springers for vaulting visible beneath the roof, indicating that a western porch was originally envisaged. Single-storey projections flank the west end, containing the baptistery to the south and gallery stairs to the north. At the east end where the ground drops away, three windows illuminate a small crypt beneath the chancel.

Internally, the church is notably spacious with excellent illumination in the nave, though the crossing and east end receive less light. Four-centred nave arcades support the structure. The floors comprise red-and-black tiles in the corridors with oak parquet beneath the seating. Walls are painted white with dressed limestone. The vaults consist of stained timber in a variation of wagon vaults with four-centred profiles and ridge-ribs, principal transverse ribs springing from corbels. The crossing arches are exceptionally high; the western arch is embellished with a series of statues arranged vertically on the piers. The south chapel, arranged as a Lady Chapel, contains two groups of three lancet windows on the south elevation and a three-light east window, connected to the chancel by an arch with a traceried head. Several interior features were abandoned due to lack of funds: the crossing vault, the baptistery vault, a vault under the west gallery, and carved details at the entrance to the gallery stairs.

The chancel retains all of Reeve's original Neo-Perpendicular fittings executed in oak, comprising a substantial reredos with figures, altar, rails, sedilia, priest's stall and reader's desk, the latter two enhanced with refined details such as kneeling and seated figures on the arms. The only later fitting in the chancel is a striking jewel-coloured east window designed by M. Maybee in 1960, employing a semi-abstract design with three central figures. The pierced parapet wall in front of the window has had its quatrefoil openings glazed in the same manner, creating a harmonious effect. Reeve's choir stalls of 1915 appear to have been removed, possibly when an altar and rails were arranged beneath the crossing, likely by Moss & Denham around 1970. The nave seating comprises small oak chairs of approximately early twentieth-century date. The pulpit is oak in Neo-Perpendicular style, and the font is octagonal with a panelled bowl and stem. The aisles, transepts and clerestory are predominantly clear-glazed. The Lady Chapel features an exceptional stained glass east window of the Virgin and Child with St Catherine and St Anne, and two groups of three figures in the south wall, all designed by H.W. Lonsdale and commissioned in 1898.

A district chapelry of St Mark was established from the northern portion of St Martin's parish to serve Salisbury's northward expansion. Temporary churches had been erected in Gigant Street in 1880 and Wyndham Park in 1882. Bishop John Wordsworth envisaged a permanent church on the site from the late 1880s onwards. Reeve's design was selected through a limited competition held in 1890. The foundation stone was laid on 27 April 1892, and the first phase, comprising the chancel, south chapel, transepts and one bay of the nave, was dedicated on 28 April 1894. The builder was C.A. Hayes of Bristol. The church was consecrated in 1899. The nave was enlarged in 1914 to 1915 by an additional four bays plus the narthex, following the original plan. After the First World War, a war memorial chapel was established in the north transept, and in 1922 the south porch was added as a virtual replica of a Reeve porch at Ramsbury in Wiltshire.

Joseph A. Reeve (1850-1915) was a skilled but little-remembered architect with a small London practice. He trained with E.J. Tarver and subsequently with William Burges. Through Tarver, Reeve became acquainted with Horatio W. Lonsdale, another Burges protégé, who designed the Lady Chapel's east window at St Mark in 1902. Family connections provided important patronage: Reeve's sister married Christopher Wordsworth, whose father was Bishop of Lincoln and whose brother John became Bishop of Salisbury in 1885. This connection secured Reeve several significant commissions, including his involvement at St Mark, his most important work. Reeve's brother was a cleric and close associate of Archbishop Benson of Canterbury, who laid the foundation stone at St Mark. The church shares similarities with St Anne at Roath in Cardiff (1887), Reeve's only previous design for a new church. Reeve died suddenly in 1915 before the church's completion.