St Aloysius Church, Main Street, Chapelhall

The church was designed by Pugin and Pugin and built in 1894, with later additions. It is a small basilican-plan building constructed in Gothic style using bull-faced sandstone coursers with sandstone ashlar dressings; the base course is ashlar and bull-faced. A presbytery was added later, linked to the north side of the church via a small sacristy. The presbytery is a brick and rendered structure designed by Alexander McNally in 1934, forming a 2-storey rectangular-plan house.

Church: East (Entrance) Elevation

The principal elevation faces east and features a flat-roof masonry porch with stepped and pedimented parapet, topped with a large masonry cross finial. The porch contains a transomed and mullioned bipartite window and timber double-leaf doors positioned to the right return. Above the porch sits a large central hoodmoulded pointed window with reticulated tracery, flanked by two smaller reticulated windows. A small hoodmoulded pointed traceried window lights the gablehead, which is crowned with a masonry cross finial. Three hoodmoulded pointed arched reticulated windows originally dominated this elevation above what is now a later rectangular-plan masonry porch.

Church: North Elevation

The north elevation comprises 8 bays with segmental-arched traceried windows, with smaller windows to the far right and left. An advanced bull-faced masonry single-storey vestibule stands to the far left. This vestibule is linked to a 6-bay plain brick hall which obscures most of the north elevation but is not directly attached to the church. A later brick-built garage adjoins the hall to the far right.

Church: West (Rear) Elevation

The west elevation features a central reticulated hoodmoulded pointed window flanked by square-plan buttresses. A small hoodmoulded pointed traceried window lights the gablehead, which carries a masonry cross finial. A late 20th-century single-storey pitched-roofed extension to the right incorporates the sacristy and links the church to the presbytery.

Church: South Elevation

The south elevation contains 8 bays with 6 segmental-arched windows; the 2 windows to the far right are smaller than those elsewhere. A 2-bay pitched-roof bull-faced masonry porch occupies the far left of this elevation.

Church: Roof and Fixtures

The pitched roof is covered in grey slates with straight stone skews and gablet skewputts. Stained glass fills the principal windows on the east and west elevations and the window to the northwest at the sanctuary; secondary windows contain diamond panes. Boarded timber doors close the openings.

Church: Interior

Inside, a small timber-framed entrance porch features diamond-paned tinted glass panels. The roof is timber beamed and bracketed. Pine pews line the interior. The principal furnishings include a white marble Gothic-style pulpit with cusped panels and green marble colonnettes; a white marble altar of similar design; a small white marble reredos with mosaic and painted panels depicting saints, with a prominent central pinnacled and columned tabernacle niche; an octagonal white marble baptismal font on a green columned pedestal; and mosaic stations of the cross matching the altar mosaics. All these pieces were installed between 1941 and 1952. Large stained glass windows depict the Nativity to the west (installed 1941-1952) and the Sermon on the Mount to the east, the latter designed by Shonna McInnes (1984-1894). Smaller windows to the northwest depict Eucharistic themes and date to 1984.

Presbytery: Exterior

The presbytery, designed by Alexander McNally in 1934, is a 2-storey rectangular-plan house of wide 3-bay proportions. The ground floor has narrow brickwork with vertical brick banded cill courses, while the 1st storey is rendered with wet-dash finish.

The west (garden) elevation features a wide full-height canted central 5-light window with flanking bi-partite windows on both ground and 1st floors. A slightly recessed single-storey pitched bay to the far left marks the former service wing. The south (entrance) elevation displays a central brick pilastered and entablatured doorway flanked by two small windows, with a 1st-floor bi-partite window centred above. A 2-bay single-storey extension to the right forms a later 20th-century sacristy. The east (rear) elevation shows regular fenestration across 7 bays, with some windows to the far right (serving the former service wing) now blocked. The north elevation features a slightly advanced central breaking eaves parapeted doorway with decorative brickwork crucifix above it, and a bi-partite window to the left. The roof is piended and covered with concrete pantiles.

Presbytery: Interior

Most original interiors survive. The dining room is oak veneered and panelled. Art Deco timber chimney pieces are present throughout, along with a streamlined brass staircase banister. Original Art Deco brass ironmongery and some original light fittings remain. The windows have been replaced with 2-pane plastic units.

Boundary Features

Low coped bull-faced coursed walls front the church, topped with later cast-iron railings and octagonal-plan gatepiers. A low coped tooled bull-faced masonry wall runs along the north boundary.