Description

CHELTENHAM

SO9421NE SUFFOLK SQUARE
630-1/18/882 (North East side)
12/03/65 Parish Centre for St Philip and St
James

GV II*

Formerly known as: Church of St James SUFFOLK SQUARE.
Church of St James, now parish hall for Church of St Philip
and St James. Begun 1825 to designs of Edward Jenkins,
completed 1830 with advice from JB Papworth; builder, James
Cooke. Site donated by James Fisher, the Square's developer.
Ashlar over brick with concealed roof. Regency Gothic style,
Decorated type tracery.
EXTERIOR: 6-bay aisled nave with buttresses (those to west end
with pinnacles) between 2-light windows with Decorated-type
tracery and hoodmoulds; crenellated parapet. Short angled
sanctuary. Pinnacled west end gable with lower flanking
pinnacled towers. 4-light west window has decorated tracery
with crocketed ogee label and clock over; the pinnacle
buttresses of the west front have chevroned string course.
4-light East window with Decorated-type tracery and hoodmould
with face stops, chamfered sill; between similar 2-light
windows to aisles. Entrances to west end central double
lancet-panelled doors with fanlight; similar smaller
pointed-arched doors to ends.
INTERIOR: retains good galleried interior with arcaded
panelling to balconies and clustered piers supporting Tudor
arches of arcade and iron trusses. Richly carved sanctuary.
Single flat-pitched roof of considerable span on slender
quatrefoil columns with octagonal abaci and Tudor arches,
partly infilled. To rear a narrow-open-well staircase with
stick balusters. Doors have Y-tracery. Monuments by G Lewis of
Cheltenham; also by Peter Hollins of Birmingham, 1855.
HISTORICAL NOTE: Suffolk Square occupies land bought by the
Earl of Suffolk from the de la Bere's and on which he had
built Suffolk House for his own residence; his daughter later
sold much of the land, on which Suffolk Square now stands.
James Fisher began developing the estate in 1823. Part of a
distinguished group of buildings in Suffolk Square.
(The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale
and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 128-129; Blake S:
Cheltenham's Churches and Chapels AD 773-1883: Cheltenham:
1979-: 14-18).

Listing NGR: SO9458921612

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17535821

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

• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)