Former Church Of St Edmund

The former Church of St Edmund stands on the north side of Bedwin Street in Salisbury. This Grade II* listed building comprises a 15th-century nave (originally the chancel of a larger medieval church) and a tower rebuilt between 1653 and 1655 following its collapse. Sir George Gilbert Scott reseated and restored the church in 1865-7, rebuilding the chancel and adding north and south chancel chapels. The building was adapted as an arts centre between 2003 and 2005.

Construction and Materials

The church is built of mixed limestone ashlar with clay tiled roofs. Its plan consists of a west tower, a symmetrical five-bay nave with aisles, and a three-bay chancel with shorter symmetrical chapels to north and south. Attached to the north of the north aisle at its east end is a two-storey addition, formerly used as schoolrooms.

The Tower

The west tower was entirely rebuilt after its collapse in 1653, constructed in Gothic style across three short stages with setback buttresses. The west door is framed by a square label with quatrefoils in the spandrels, but the tracery members are flat-fronted and square-sectioned, suggesting a 17th-century interpretation of Gothic rather than reused medieval fabric. The same style doorcase appears at the west end of the south aisle. The lower windows are mainly small, single or double lights with bastardised Perpendicular tracery. The bell-openings are of two lights with quatrefoils in the heads. The tower has embattled parapets with small crocketed pinnacles; the south-west pinnacle is missing but reportedly stored within the church awaiting replacement.

The Nave and Aisles

The nave is encased on all sides, with full-length aisles featuring four-light Perpendicular windows under four-centred heads. Regular buttresses stand between the windows, and the building has solid parapets. Cast-iron rainwater goods on the south side bear the date 1867.

The Chapels and Schoolrooms

The south chapel is Victorian work; its five-light east window has a transom. On the north-east angle of the church stands a two-storey Gothic Revival building dating from approximately 1780-1800, reportedly built as a mausoleum and later extended as schoolrooms. This rectangular building has four large arched lights with interlaced tracery in the upper floor and two-light square-headed windows below. Carvings at eaves level on the corners include at least one angel, probably of medieval origin.

Interior

During Sir George Gilbert Scott's restoration of 1865-7, the chancel was rebuilt with a sacristy on the north and chapel on the south. The former east walls of the 15th-century aisles were taken down and re-erected to form the east end of the new extension. Flanking the east windows in both north and south chapel walls are the remains of two tiers of niches with vaulted canopies, which before the Reformation would have held statues of saints with lighted candles before them.

The chancel has on each side a two-arched arcade with octagonal piers and a timber roof on shield corbels, all by Scott. The chancel arch and nave arcades are essentially medieval, though much restored. The arches have two concave hollows with a square rebate between, while the piers are of standard Perpendicular section with four hollows with shafts and ring-moulded capitals. The north aisle roof is probably at least partly medieval, forming a wagon-vault with tie beams.

Principal Fixtures

In the former sanctuary stands a Victorian aumbry on the north side and a reredos with mosaic (now obscured). The church contains a fine set of 15 stained glass windows, all by Clayton & Bell and dating from approximately 1867-88; some are documented, the rest firmly attributed on grounds of style. The most spectacular is the seven-light east window of 1867, depicting scenes from the Nativity, Passion and Ascension. The latest firmly dateable window is the west window of 1888, now obscured within the tower.

A few minor 18th- and 19th-century tablets survive in the aisles. Above the west door of the tower is a commemorative tablet to the rebuilding: under a segmental pediment, a cartouche with gristly scrolls bears the inscription "The Lord did marvellously preserve a great congregation of his people from the fall of the tower in this place upon the Sabbath Day being June 26th 1653. Praise Him O ye Children." Beneath the parapet on the west face of the tower is carved "JOHN HILLARY JOHN PERCEVALL CHURCHWARDENS" (the second surname partly unreadable). They held office in 1655-6.

Recent Additions

The Arts Centre was refurbished and the historic fabric conserved between 2003 and 2005 by Tim Ronalds Architects of London, who also built simple new workshops and offices to the north. This addition is of brown brick with pitched roofs and metal-framed windows, connected to the main building by a glazed corridor on two levels. The office building is not of special interest and is excluded from this listing.

Historical Development

Salisbury was intended from the first as a university city, and the collegiate church of St Edmund of Abingdon was founded by Bishop de la Wyle in 1269, about the time the cathedral was completed. However, a bequest in a will shows that building was underway by 1264. Of the 13th-century church nothing remains, for it was said in 1407 to be "newly built" as a cruciform church with central tower and an aisled nave. This plan form is more typical of the 13th than the early 15th century, so the Perpendicular rebuilding probably embellished the original plan.

The steeple had been removed by 1559, but by around 1600 the tower was showing signs of instability, which worsened over the following decades. Despite further interventions, in June 1653 the central tower collapsed westward, causing severe damage to the nave. Between 1653 and 1655, the tower was rebuilt and the chancel of around 1407 was converted to a nave. The old nave was not rebuilt, reducing the church to about half its former size. This unusual date for Anglican church rebuilding gives the tower particular art-historical significance.

Not long before 1843, a small chancel without aisles was extended eastwards. Sir George Gilbert Scott restored the church in 1865-7, rebuilding the chancel with sacristy on the north and chapel on the south. The former east walls of the 15th-century aisles were taken down and re-erected to form the east end of the new extension. At the same time, the box pews, galleries and a three-decker pulpit were removed. In 1913 the south chapel was reordered. In 1954 the chancel was remodelled to provide more space, by W.H. Randoll Blacking.

The church was further repaired by Potter & Hare of Salisbury around 1966-70, then by the Brandt Potter Hare Partnership in 1971-2. It closed in 1974 and, under a covenant drawn up with the local council, became Salisbury Arts Centre in 1975, the conversion probably carried out by Potter & Hare. It was refurbished again in 2003-5.