Description

CHELTENHAM

SO9422SW MALVERN ROAD 630-1/12/513 (East side) 12/03/55 Christ Church and adjacent Church Hall

GV II*

Church and Church Hall. 1837-40 with later additions and alterations. Architects: RW and C Jearrad. Builders: Thomas Newton, Solomon Sims and Joseph Puzey. Apse added and interior remodelled 1888-93 by JH Middleton, HA Prothero and Phillot with 'Byzantine' wall decoration by Sir William Richmond and J Eadie Reid. Stained glass by Lavers, Barrand and Westlake, and Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Monuments mostly by Lewis of Cheltenham. Restored by RW Paterson, 1956. Ashlar over brick with slate roof. PLAN: Regency Gothic in Early English style with a tall Perpendicular-type West tower symmetrically placed in the centre of an elaborately gabled west end with north and south porches, aisled nave, a single preaching box with north and south transepts and apsidal sanctuary; Classicized interior and Byzantine-style decorations to apse. Church Hall attached to south. EXTERIOR: west end: chamfered plinth, buttresses; stepped gabled buttresses to ends and centre with pinnacles, both porches and centre are gabled; outer entrances, pointed doorways have paired plank doors with pilaster between and cusped heads with quatrefoil to apex, 2 orders of roll-moulded arches and hoodmould; central stepped 3-lancet-light window with pilasters between and hollow-chamfer to head; above a clock to gable. Tower enriched with carved decoration, band, two 2-light belfry openings with Perpendicular-type tracery above, pierced parapet; octagonal turrets surmounted by finials with pinnacles. Aisles have tall 2-light lancet windows. Church Hall is single-storey with gable-facing to slightly projecting central gable in 3-bay facade. Hood moulds over chamfered lancets, except stepped 3-light Early English window to centre, with moulded architraves and stylised Gothic carving to capitals set on engaged shafts. Plain but similar 3-light window to rear. INTERIOR: has 1837-40 gallery to 3 sides, 2 unclad iron stanchions with 'Gothic' capitals survive in their original form at the west end, those to both sides are Doric, with plinths (the iron stanchions are within); box pews remain to upper stage. Otherwise virtually all 1888-9, with exception of

1865 font. Apse has 2 arches with pilasters with arabesque ornament, tempera frescoes with Christ, the Apostles, St Michael and St George to the dome and the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity and Presentation to the walls and Resurrection to the reredos. Flat ceiling with oak panels on paired colonnette corbels to transepts. Porches each have open-well staircase with alternate stick and ornate balusters and wreathed handrail; north porch has further spiral staircase. Ornate screen to choir. Coloured marble pulpit. Many wall tablets to members of the military who had served in India and the East India Company who retired to Cheltenham, including James Webster (d.1858) of Hatherley Court, Hatherley Road (qv) also Richard Crosier Sherwood (d.1850) of Suffolk Lawn. Interior of Church Hall not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: ashlar wall with pointed arch attached to Church Hall on south. HISTORICAL NOTE: built as a proprietary chapel to accommodate about 2,000 in anticipation of the expansion of the Lansdown Estate. The architects, RW and C Jearrad were building the Queen's Hotel, Promenade (qv) concurrently. The distinctive and unusual proportions have attracted the attention of many architectural writers: Sir John Betjeman wrote that this is, 'one of the most successful buildings in Cheltenham externally.' (Sampson A and Blake S: A Cheltenham Companion: Cheltenham: 1993-: 28,69; Blake S: Cheltenham's Churches and Chapels AD 773-1883: Cheltenham: 1979-: 28-29; Rowe G: Illustrated Cheltenham Guide 1850: Cheltenham: 1845-1969: 32; Whiting R: Christ Church, Cheltenham 1840-1990: 1990-; The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 127-28; Sladen T: Notes: 1995-).



Listing NGR: SO9399922266

External Links

• Christ Church at Wikipedia
• Christ Church official website
• Wikidata Q17535347

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)