United Reformed Church and Former Sunday School, Lowestoft, Suffolk

Summary

Non-conformist chapel built in 1852 to the designs of Robert Kerr with a Sunday school added in 1863, and further classrooms in 1882 to the designs of E Boardman.

Description

Non-conformist chapel built in 1852 to the designs of Robert Kerr with a Sunday school added in 1863, and further classrooms in 1882 to the designs of E Boardman.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with gault brick dressings and slate-clad pitched roofs.

PLAN: the church faces west onto London Road North and has a rectangular plan consisting of the vestibule and auditorium with the former schoolroom (now hall) facing east onto Old Nelson Street with additional former classrooms to the north.

EXTERIOR: the church building is in an elaborate Italianate style with ornate dressings. The wide gabled façade to the auditorium has a moulded brick cornice and, in front, the lower gabled bay of the vestibule. This is embellished by a rusticated ground floor and quoins, and a moulded modillion cornice. The central double-leaf, panelled door is set within a deeply moulded semi-circular arch surround with a keystone. The outermost moulding of the arch continues either side to form a string course. The entrance is flanked by rounded lancets with keystones. The first floor is lit by five stepped lancets within projecting surrounds with prominent keystones, and the gable head is pierced by an oculus. The windows have square leaded lights. To the left is a three-stage square tower with rusticated quoins to the first two stages and a moulded modillion cornice to the upper two stages. The first stage is dominated by a projecting, rusticated entrance bay with a deep brick cornice and a keyed semicircular arch doorway containing double-leaf panelled doors. The second stage is lit by a keyed lancet whilst the most elaborate third stage has a stepped brick base and open paired lancets on each side which have jambs in the form of square columns. The pyramid roof is surmounted by a stone finial. The squat, circular staircase tower to the left has a similar rusticated ground floor and doorway to the square tower. The circular first floor has a moulded modillion cornice and is lit by a series of lancets with an outer band of red coloured glass set within projecting moulded frames. The returns to the auditorium are divided into six bays by flat buttresses and lit by tall round-headed sashes with glazing bars. Those on the south side were replaced around 2013.

The tall single-storey former Sunday school, which faces onto Old Nelson Street, is in the same Italianate style as the church with rusticated quoins and a moulded modillion cornice, above which is a parapet with horizontal gault brick panels. The façade is defined by shallow square projections to each end surmounted by short square turrets which have a pair of blind lancets. The central bay, which projects slightly, contains the double-leaf panelled door set within a keyed, semi-circular arch surround. This is flanked by paired lancets. To the right is a shorter single-storey extension, added in 1882, which has rusticated quoins and a dentilled cornice, above which the plain parapet has been rebuilt. It is lit by a group of three round headed sash windows with keyed surrounds and glazing bars. The right return is blind, followed by three bays with flush gault brick string courses at sill and lintel level. These contain a panelled door and two sash windows, all under segmental brick arches.

INTERIOR: the principal entrance opens into a lobby with a staircase to the gallery (added in the mid-C20) and a door into the vestibule which has been refurbished in the early C21. The principal area of interest is the double-height auditorium which has a six-bay hammerbeam roof. The slopes are clad in diagonal match boarding. The panelled gallery runs around three sides, supported by slender iron columns, and retains fitted benches, some with shaped ends. The tall round-arched recess on the east wall and the flanking doors date to the post-fire restoration. Numerous memorial tablets are affixed to the walls. In the circular turret the stone spiral staircase has slender iron balusters supporting a handrail, and the original four-panel door survives that gives access to the gallery.

Few of the original fixtures and fittings remain in the former school. The original school of 1863 is now a large room with a high ceiling used as a hall. On the north wall are three sets of wide, panelled double-leaf doors which provide access to three former classrooms (added in 1882), two of which have been converted into one larger room. The third room (in the north-east corner) retains sloping matchboard cladding at one end, indicating that it had gallery seating.

History

The name Lowestoft is Scandinavian in origin and may be translated as Hloover’s toft – the homestead of Hloover. The town relocated to the cliff-top from an earlier site, about a mile to the south-west, during the period 1300-1350, partly because of increasing maritime activity (especially herring-fishing) and the need it created to be closer to the sea, and partly because of the difficulty of accommodating an expanding population in-situ without building houses on valuable agricultural land. The area chosen for the new site was low-grade coastal heath, used mainly for the rough-grazing of livestock which became a more useful asset to the manorial lord as building-land. The main street is of sinuous alignment, following the natural curves of the cliff. The better-off members of the community lived along the High Street whilst the less affluent largely resided in a gridiron side-street area to the west. Lowestoft was thus a planned late medieval town.

The High Street was lined with burgage plots containing prosperous merchants’ houses for much of the medieval and early modern period, and the cliff-face was made usable by terracing. The cliff-top itself provided an area behind the houses for the storage of household goods and materials; and the first step down was multi-purpose, sometimes planted with fruit trees and used as an amenity area, but also functioning as a place for putting all kinds of household waste. The second and third stages down were mainly taken up with the buildings that serviced fishing and other maritime enterprise: curing-houses, net-stores, stables and the like. Access from the cliff-top to the sea was provided by footways known as scores (three of them widened for use by carts) – a word deriving from the Old Norse ‘skora’, meaning ‘to cut’ or ‘to incise’. These had originally started life as surface-water gullies down the soft face of the cliff – a natural process that lent itself to use as tracks.

The chief trade of Lowestoft and the source of its prosperity remained herring fishing until the C19. Then in 1827 the harbour was created, and in 1832 the navigation continued through to Oulton Broad, giving access to the River Waveney and Norwich. Samuel Morton Peto was brought in to construct the outer harbour, and he ensured the arrival of the railway in 1847 as well as developing the land south of the harbour as a seaside resort. The town was bombarded by the Germans in 1916 and suffered considerable damage from 178 enemy raids in the Second World War. Post-war reconstruction involved new roads being cut through the northern part of the town. In the later years of the C20 the fishing industry has almost completely declined.
The United Reformed Church was originally known as the Congregational Church. It was built in 1852 by Messrs Lucas Bros at a cost of £1500 and replaced the small chapel in the High Street which dated to 1695. The church was designed by the architect and Professor of Architecture Robert Kerr (1823-1904). Kerr was apprenticed to John Smith before emigrating to New York to set up practice there. He did not prosper, returning to Britain in 1844 and setting up practice in London. He was one of the founders of the Architectural Association and its first president in 1847-1848. In 1861 he was appointed Professor of the Arts of Construction at King's College, and in the following year District Surveyor of St James. These offices, together with his numerous publications, notably The Gentleman’s House (1864), brought him a number of important country house commissions, including Bearwood House, Berkshire (1865-1874), Ford Manor, Surrey (1868) and Ascot Heath (1868). His practice did not prosper in later years however because of his lack of respect for clients, his complaints to the Royal Institute of British Architects about the conduct of other members in relation to his several lawsuits, bad costing and requests for additional percentage on his commission. Kerr's last major book was The Consulting Architect: Practical Notes on Administrative Difficulties (1886). Kerr has four buildings on the List, including the Grade II* listed Bearwood House and the Church of St Andrew in Framingham Pigot, Norfolk (1859).

During the ministry of the Reverend Richard Lewis (1860-1864) the congregation of the United Reformed Church grew steadily so that in 1861 galleries were added to increase the accommodation and the stair tower was built to the right of the front entrance to provide access. In 1863 the Sunday school was added to the rear of the building facing onto Old Nelson Street. In 1882 it was enlarged and new classrooms were added to the north at a cost of £1,300. The foundation stone was laid by JJ Colman, MP for Norwich, and the stone tablet records that the architect was E Boardman.

Edward Boardman and Sons was a prominent Norwich based architectural practice. It was founded by Edward Boardman (1833-1910) whose son, Edward Thomas Boardman (1861-1950) later joined the practice. It is not clear whether the Sunday school extension was designed by the father or son but, given the date, it is more likely to be the father. Edward Boardman was a prolific architect, designing and restoring country houses, public buildings and churches in the area of Norwich, including the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital (Grade II), the former Primitive Methodist Chapel and Sunday school in Queens Road (both Grade II), and the conversion of Norwich Castle into a museum. His son was principally responsible for the buildings designed by the practice in the Edwardian period and he later became Lord Mayor of Norwich in 1905 and High Sheriff of Norfolk in 1933. Boardman and Sons have over 30 listed buildings to their name.

In 1890 extensive alterations were carried out to the church. The architects were Messrs Chambers and Roberts of Lowestoft and the work was supervised by the Lowestoft contractor A Bedwell. In the previously flat-ceilinged auditorium the walls were raised by four feet and the roof pitches above that to the height of sixteen feet. The ceiling was clad in diagonal match boarding supported by five hammerbeam trusses. The roof of the projecting gable on the façade was also raised and an oculus added in the new gable head. The old pews were replaced with pitch pine seats and the organ was moved from the west to the east end.

In 1906 a lecture hall was built. Photographs of the period show a gabled extension on the left of the church which was presumably the lecture hall but it was later destroyed in the Second World War. The main schoolroom was also severely damaged. During the ministry of the Reverend RH Mills (1945-1952), the vestibule was enlarged and an internal staircase to the gallery was added to the left of the entrance. In 1991 a fire broke out in the auditorium damaging the front of the gallery, the rostrum, organ and pews which were removed during the restoration work. Since then the vestibule has been refurbished and a small kitchen added.

Reasons for Listing

The United Reformed Church and Former Sunday School, built in 1852 to the designs of Robert Kerr, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is the work of numerous architects, two of whom – Robert Kerr and Edward Boardman – are already recognised as being of national importance through having a considerable number of their buildings listed;

* it has a bold architectural character in the Italianate style in which the striking contrast between the red brick and decorative gault brick dressings creates a texturally rich and striking composition;

* the raked matchboard cladding in one of the classrooms is a particularly significant feature as it shows there was gallery seating; evidence of this is rarely found.

Historic interest:

* the church and school represent an important historic ensemble that embodies the religious and educational role enacted by non-conformist communities throughout the country during this period.

Group value:

* it is prominently located on London Road North and has group value with a number of listed buildings, particularly 101 High Street, a mid-C19 former public house, and 102-104 High Street, a former town house and shop originating in the mid-C16.

External Links

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