Church Of The Holy Saviour Convent Of Poor Clares

Church of the Holy Saviour and Convent of Poor Clares, Lee Road, Lynton

A convent with attached Catholic church, begun in 1908, with the church dedicated in 1910 and the full complex completed in 1931. Designed by Leonard Stokes and George Drysdale, the building is rendered with slate roofs.

The convent range forms an austere three-storey block with a hipped roof. Along Lee Road it extends for eleven bays, each fitted with twelve-pane sash windows, horned only at ground floor level. The upper two floors are articulated with flat pilaster strips and surrounds, separated by a broad plat-band above the ground floor. Three painted terracotta roundels in the manner of Della Robbia are positioned between the first and second floors. The eaves feature a moulded cornice. To the left, set back from the main front, stands a hipped porch extension with a doorway. The western return is similar to the street front, containing nine bays, with paired sashes in bays seven and nine. Three ridge stacks punctuate the roofline. The main convent entrance is incorporated within the church narthex to the right.

The church itself is set gable to the street with a very austere exterior. A gable with deep projecting eaves is flanked to the right by a two-stage bell turret. The gable displays a cross above an inscription panel reading "Christi Salvatori" and a central oculus. At ground floor level, a projecting hipped narthex contains three square lights with Art Nouveau glazing, flanked on each side by paired square pilasters with doorways leading to a flat-roofed section. Paired plank doors sit on three steps: to the left is the entrance marked "Convent of Poor Clares" and to the right "Parish Church of The Holy Saviour". The right return features another pair of plank doors on steps, then a hipped single-storey unit above the baptistry, which has a returned wing to the east. The main flank contains two groups of three-light Mannerist stone-mullioned arched windows set flush with the rendered wall, with a stack to the rear.

The interior begins with a narthex approached by seven steps from the doors to the east, featuring a low coved ceiling and central deep-set doors framed in bolection moulding, flanked by recesses on either side. The nave and sanctuary comprise four bays with a gallery to the south (liturgical west); a baptistry lies to the right and a chapel to the left. The sanctuary is raised on five steps, with the altar positioned a further three steps higher. The main space is barrel-vaulted with a plastered panelled intrados and heavy transverse arches, carried on a moulded cornice with panelled aprons to the windows. The panelled gallery front is supported on two unfluted Ionic pilasters with volute caps as end responds. The baptistry, occupying two bays, features an apse and flat segmental pilasters with cornice. The western chapel contains two arches with plain tympana above lintels, a low flat ceiling, and a marble reredos with niche. The main flooring is wood block.

The sanctuary is richly appointed, with a marble sarcophagus altar dated 1753, brought from the dismantled chapel of St Simon and St Jude in Rome from the Orsini family collection. At either end are grilled doors with a three-light lunette above. The marble floor is enclosed by an inlaid marble cancelli screen.

Fittings include, in addition to the main altar, a double confessional beneath the western end, plain benches, a font with cover, and a statue of the Madonna in a niche on the east side.

The church was built under the direction of Monsignor Hugh Lean and consecrated on 8 September 1931. Leonard Stokes was assisted by George Drysdale as architect, and Stokes designed and donated the font cover. The builder was Bob Jones and Son of Lynton, with much of the stone quarried on the site itself.