Description

PLYMOUTH

SX4854 CHARLES CROSS, Plymouth
740-1/58/359 Charles Church
25/01/54

GV I

Parish church ruin. 1640-1658, one of very few established
churches built during the Commonwealth, tower completed 1708,
the present stone spire replacing a wooden one in 1766, 2
small C19 accretions, interior refitted 1828-29 by JH Ball
(now lost); gutted during the Blitz and now preserved as a
symbolic ruin and war memorial at the centre of a major
roundabout. Plymouth limestone ashlar with granite dressings;
ashlar spire to tower.
STYLE: Gothic Survival style with elaborate Perpendicular
detail except for the E chancel window which has Decorated
detail with rose tracery.
PLAN: nave/chancel, N and S aisles and W tower.
EXTERIOR: buttresses with finials dividing the bays; traceried
windows with hoodmoulds; the E window particularly fine;
4-centred arched doorways with square hoodmoulds. 3-stage
tower with offset corner buttresses; strings dividing the
diminishing stages; round-arched 3-light upper-stage windows
with simple tracery; octagonal spire behind a parapet with
moulded cornice and square corner pinnacles with pineapple
finials.
INTERIOR: arcades with standard A (Pevsner) piers and
depressed arches. Many wall monuments.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-:
641).

Listing NGR: SX4821654603

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 8 December 2016.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Charles Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5076258

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990