Description

TQ5800
11/10009

EASTBOURNE
VICTORIA DRIVE (east side)
Church of St Elisabeth

(Formerly listed as Church of St Elizabeth)

II

Parish church. Foundation stone laid in 1935, architects D Stonham and Son and A.R.G Fenning. Built of red brick in English bond with Clipsham stone dressings and tiled roof. Floor and roof trusses are in pre-cast suspended reinforced concrete and the pitched roofs have light steel trusses and timber joists. Wide nave with narrow aisles and choir and chancel of equal height. East end has Lady Chapel to east of north transept which has an organ loft over and south transept has library over and attached bellcote. In addition to the west door are NW and SW porches to the narthex, which contains the baptistery and north and south porches at east end of the nave. Tall west front with gabled parapet and almost full-height tapering brick buttresses. West window is a traceried lancet with trefoil heads. Arched west door flanked by side lancets and gabled parapet. Aisles have 3 tall lancets with traceried windows divided by buttresses and narrow aisle with 2 triple casements and gabled porches. North transept has gable to north and mullioned windows. South transept similar but with bellcote. Chancel has 2 traceried windows. East end is blank except for triple mullioned window to former basement classroom. Two storey flat-roofed porches to NE and SE. Interior has arcade with Clipsham stone arches, octagonal Clipsham stone font and 2 Clipsham stone pulpits. Ribbed ceiling and unusual polygonal-shaped lights suspended from brackets. Transepts have arched openings at first floor level. Metal screen to Lady Chapel. Light oak pews to nave and choir. Travertine marble floor to chancel. Wrought iron altar rail. Around the sanctuary is a sequence of fixed painted panels depicting scenes such as the Annunciation and the Baptism of Christ, in a pure Italian quatrocento style. They are signed E.W. Tristram, 1938. (Tristram was the leading authority on English Medieval wall paintings and their conservation.) In a basement room there survives an important painted mural sequence, depicting the Pilgrim's Progress in a free expression style by Hans Feibusch, 1944. These murals are of special historic interest.

[See "Architects' Journal" April 4, 1940.]

Listing NGR: TQ5906400597

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Elisabeth at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26544514

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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