Church Of St Luke

The Church of St Luke is a church begun in 1936 and completed in 1963, designed by Arthur Martin. It is constructed of rendered walls with slate roofs, and has a copper-clad tower roof. The plan is cruciform, resembling a St Andrew's Cross, with three angled naves converging on the altar and an apsidal chancel. The style is Byzantine-Romanesque.

The church’s exterior features round-arched three-light windows to the north and south sides of the chancel. A squat crossing tower with a pyramidal roof, shallow clasping buttresses, and a plat band meeting imposts of two-light round-arched belfry windows is prominent. Triangular projections containing tall cavetto-moulded lights connect to radiating chapels with similar four-light windows. The chapels have two-light windows to the west, connected by angled links with segmental-arched surrounds to doorways. The west front features slightly projecting outer bays clasping a recessed and gabled centre, with a small round-arched light above a continuous plat band, followed by a large round-arched and shouldered west window recessed within a limestone ashlar surround framing a central doorway and flanking two-light square-headed windows. The outer projecting blocks incorporate round-arched one-light windows.

The interior is notable for its spatial quality. The three naves radiate from the centre and are linked by arcades with granite columns, surmounted by round-arched clerestory windows. The chapels are barrel-vaulted and feature granite columns with moulded capitals and deep rere-arches. A leaded glass screen partitions the narthex from the naves, and two staircases lead to the gallery above. The design of the high altar is plain and severe; a later pulpit was designed subsequently, and objected to by the architect. A moveable lectern was also designed by Arthur Martin.

The church is remarkable for its interior spatial quality and its extraordinary centralised plan, which anticipated characteristics of post-war planning. The design for the church was reportedly revealed to the vicar, J Keble Martin (brother of the architect and a celebrated author of British Flora), in a dream.