Church of the Holy Spirit

This is a parish church, built in the 20th century and inspired by Byzantine architecture, notable for its articulated plan. The church is constructed with brick facing over concrete, and has roofs of Penrhyn slate. The long nave has no windows, except for a large, tripartite west window with a semicircular top. The south side of the nave has a gable that aligns with a single-story entrance block located at the angle of the nave and the south transept. The entrance block features an arcaded facade between vestigial pilaster buttresses, with paired panelled doors set back in a complex brick arch. To the right of the entrance and in the west return wall are simpler arches with paired small windows. A pierced parapet mirrors the detail of the cornices that run elsewhere on the building. The central roofline rises over the central space, suggesting a crossing, and then slopes to a hipped roof over the long chancel. This chancel roof is interrupted by a circular drum, topped with a copper lantern. The south transept has a broad, tripartite semicircular window, while to the east is a lower, asymmetrical gable with a circular window. Hipped-roof lean-tos extend around the east end of the church, serving as vestries. A similar lean-to on the north side of the chancel, which has a high-level window, houses a boiler house and abuts the curved wall of the north transept aisle, attached to the projection of the north transept. A bellcote projects over a rose window. The nave roof slopes down over a lean-to aisle to the northwest, which contains an internal porch and vestries, featuring paired double doors and four paired windows with simple, undetailed mullions.

The interior finish is deceptively simple but subtly detailed. It features smooth concrete vaulting that springs from a low point, eliminating the need for external buttresses. The nave’s simple semicircular tunnel vault transitions to a smooth quadripartite vault, defining a vestigial crossing. This crossing opens into a transeptual organ chamber to the north, with a curved aisle to the east, and a narrow entrance arch and high tripartite window to the south, offset in the corresponding space. The south aisle is stepped in height, delineating an entrance narthex, and then a side chapel in its easternmost bay. The tunnel vault resumes over the chancel, where it is pierced and top-lit from the dome. The flooring is deceptively simple, with buff and red blocks laid in variable patterns to define the liturgical areas of the interior, with a stone flag floor in the chancel. The fittings are simple; these include wood rails around the altar, and a stone reredos. Parallel lines of lamp standards define a central aisle (with no fixed benches), and there is a corona of lights over the chancel. Other original joinery includes fine panelled mahogany doors. The windows are fitted with leaded glass with cylinder glass.