Church of the Holy Spirit

Parish church, the style Byzantine in inspiration, with high articulation given to plan areas. Brick-faced (over concrete construction), with Penrhyn slate roofs. Long nave, windowless except for a large semi-circular tripartite west window. Its line is broken to the S by a gable aligned with the single storeyed entrance block in angle of nave and S transept. This entrance is arcaded between vestigial pilaster buttresses: the entrance has paired panelled doors set back in complex brick arch; simpler arches with paired small windows to its right and in the W return wall. Pierced parapet, echoing the detail of the cornices which are continuous elsewhere. Central roofline stepped up over central space (suggesting a crossing), hipped to the higher roof over the long chancel. This roof itself is interrupted by a circular drum, surmounted by copper lantern. S transept has broad tripartite semi-circular window, and there is a lower asymmetrical gable to its east with circular window. Vestries are expressed as a hipped roofed lean-to wrapped around the east end of the church. Similar lean-to to N of chancel (which has high level window in this elevation), houses boiler house, which abuts the curved wall of the N transept aisle, clasped against the long projection of the N transept itself; bellcote projects over rose window. Nave roof sweeps down over lean-to aisle to NW (in fact internal porch and vestries), with paired double doors and 4 paired windows with simple undetailed mullions.

Simple interior finish of considerable subtlety. Smooth concrete vaulting throughout, sprung from a low point to eliminate the need for external buttresses: the simple semi-circular tunnel vault of the nave broken as a smooth quadripartite vault to define a vestigial crossing: this space opens out to form a transeptual organ chamber to the N, with a curved aisle to its E; to the S a narrow entrance arch and high tripartite window are offset in the corresponding space. Beyond this, the S aisle is stepped in height, delineating entrance 'narthex', then side chapel in its easternmost bay. Tunnel vault resumed over chancel where it is pierced and top-lit from the dome. Deceptively simple buff and red block flooring in fact laid to variable patterns defining the different liturgical areas of the interior; stone flag floor to chancel. Simple fittings include wood rails to altar, and stone reredos; parallel lines of lamp standards define a central aisle (there are no fixed benches), and there is a corona of lights to the chancel. Other original joinery includes fine panelled mahogany doors. Leaded windows with cylinder glass