Description

SUNDERLAND

NZ3957SE BRIDGE STREET
920-1/18/20 (West side)
08/05/50 Church of St Mary and attached
railings
(Formerly Listed as:
BRIDGE STREET
(West side)
Roman Catholic Church of St Mary)

GV II

Roman Catholic parish church. 1830-35. By I Bonomi. 1850
chapels, c1980 alteration to ritual S when attached presbytery
demolished. Sandstone ashlar W front, remainder limestone
rubble with ashlar dressings and some C20 ashlar; Welsh slate
roof; cast-iron railings. W is ritual E.
Sanctuary; N and S chapels; 3-bay nave. C13 style. Gabled W
front to street has stepped buttresses with tall pinnacles
flanking tall 3-light window with cinquefoil in plate tracery;
stepped triple arcade above, outer arches blind and central
louvred, under crocketed gable. Flanking lancets below smaller
lights, under plain sloped coping. 2-stage porches at each
end, with pinnacled stepped and angled buttresses, have
moulded door arches with nook shafts; bands above have blind
quatrefoil tracery; top stage 2-light windows with quatrefoil
tracery under Lombard frieze and top blind arcaded parapet.
Gable has cross finial. S elevation has lancets. E front to
Back Bridge Street has central trefoil below small lancet;
lancets in outer bays; paired lancets in N and triple in S
chapels.
INTERIOR has W gallery on moulded cast-iron columns; inserted
partition set back below. Chapels have paired double-chamfered
arches on round column and attached half-columns, the N with
shafts. High pointed-arched sanctuary, blind trefoil above and
trefoil within, and flanking windows have nook shafts with
clasping rings; hoodstring over pointed blind arches and
windows. 4 confessional doors in N wall have shouldered arches
with signs of the Passion carved in spandrels of chamfered
surrounds under hoodstring. Panelled coved ceiling on
brattished cornice and heraldic corbels. N chapel has
Gothic-style reredos with high relief carved Annunciation, S
chapel has E arcade. Reordered with altar brought forward;
carved, painted Gothic reredos in situ.
Glass in E windows signed and dated TC Dickinson, London,
1946; in N chapel vivid N window signed HM Barnett, Newcastle,
commemorating Gilmore died 1867.
Cast-iron railings attached to front and right return of
ritual S porch: spears with trefoils on principles.
The earliest Gothic revival church surviving in Sunderland.
(Corfe T and Milburn G: Buildings and Beliefs: Sunderland:
1984-: 10).

Listing NGR: NZ3967857227

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Mary's Church, Sunderland at Wikipedia
• St Mary's Church, Sunderland official website
• Wikidata Q22087138

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.

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