History

Built in 1960 and designed by F R Bates Son and Price, the most interesting of a series of Roman Catholic churches built in Cardiff suburbs at that time.

Exterior

The west front of the church is built of faced but entirely random (i.e. crazy-paving) limestone rubble with rendering in part of the gable. The rest of the walling is rendered, probably over blockwork, tiled main roof, copper roofs to the dormers. The church has a reinforced concrete frame but this is not expressed externally expcept in the tower. The plan is west entrance into the main church through a narthex, north-east vestry and clergy rooms, south meeting rooms and confessionals, south-west tower. The west elevation has a wide gable over an open porch carried on four piloti on the left and with blind walling on the right. This walling carries a concrete sculpture of St. Francis's vision of Christ on the Cross by Adam Kossowski. The concrete framed doorway is central to the gable but not the porch. Above the porch the gable is rendered and has 3:2:2:1 square windows rising to the apex. To the right is the square, but tapering, open campanile with five stages. The south elevation has two steep dormers but is otherwise featureless. The north elevation has three windows rising into steep dormers, porch to the right and priest's door to the left. The east elevation has a low wrap around storey with tall windows above on either side lighting the sanctuary; the east wall is blind.

Interior

The church has an extremely theatrical interior that is very characteristic of its date and is unaltered. The wide span roof is carried on a concrete cantilever frame with a gallery on three sides carried between the inner and outer supports. Three bays, the gallery is straight fronted between the first two and then canted round the west end, narthex below. Plain Egyptian style doorways. Chancel arch, with the sanctuary lit dramatically only from the sides. Stations of the Cross are carried on the gallery frontal.

Reasons for Listing

Of considerable architectural interest as a strikingly designed and very unaltered Catholic church of 1960.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29505285

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

• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings