Church Road, RC Church of St. Charles

Replaced a 1896 corrugated iron church on same plot. 1910-11 Decorated Gothic style. Rock-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings and blue-grey slate roofs. Cruciform in plan, orientated east to west. Apsed chancel, vestry on south side linking to a presbytery, a three-bay aisled nave with short transepts, west porch and NW and SW towers. Foundation stone laid on 14th August 1910, opened on 3 December 1911. The architect was Charles Menart. The interior was quite bare but enriched over time, with additional marble cladding to the sanctuary, stained glass to the apse in 1911 and a west gallery with organ in 1920s. After 1932 the bare walls were clad in Italian marble. After WW2 three fine stained glass windows by Harry Clarke Studios (leading figure in Irish Arts and Crafts) were installed. In 1970 a wide glass porch was added at the west end. In 1983 the west organ and choir gallery was enlarged and a partition inserted. The interior was reordered in 1985-6 when the altar rails and ornate baldacchino over the high altar were removed. The rails were relocated against the side chapel walls and parts of the baldacchino were incorporated into a new lectern, font and supports for uplighters in the apse. The sanctuary dais was extended forward into the nave, with a new forward altar. Pevsner (1992) describes it as "not a particularly interesting church, with vaguely Perpendicular windows and oddly incorporated west towers from a demolished Early English-style church in New Bridge Street, Newcastle. Not to be missed by students of stained glass because there are three extravagantly rich windows by Harry Clarke" {1}. Sandstone has blackened considerably. The church has been extended on the west side with a modern glass structure, which permits views of the stone arches of the original exterior. A presbytery is adjacent, three storeys with slate roof. Stone wall to Church Road. Being assessed for listing in 2016.