The Shadwell Lane Synagogue, described by the then Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovitz as ‘one of the finest in the world’ was the result of an RIBA sponsored open architectural competition to provide a new building which would unite the congregation of the then existing four Leeds Synagogues in to one new single place of worship.
Built also for social and educational purposes, the structure retains the very best of the significant artistry which graced the four previously occupied places of worship. As a result it is now recognised as an artistic and historic repository of the Jewish association with life in the City of Leeds.
The seating capacity of the Shul is 450 for the Shabat, by means of mobile walls, this capacity can be expanded to 1100 for High Holy Days.
The structure includes a youth centre and children’s Shul, a Hall and a Kiddush. The Ark is a derivative of the design which graced the old ‘Great’ Synagogue in Merrion Street. The New Ark is of lepine stone, beautifully carved by the sculptor Trevor Dring, of Bath.
The Bima is mobile, and can be positioned to accommodate normal worship, weddings, funerals, and especially High Holy Days when the ‘centre of gravity’ of the congregation changes.
Of special interest are two stained glass masterpieces from the 19th and 20th centuries which are dedicated to the Royal Family
This small Roman Catholic church, 10 miles from Skipton in the the Yorkshire Dales National Park, is affectionately known locally as “Paddy’s Wigwam”, because of its distinctive form that gives the impression of a pyramid.
The design of the church, by Peter Langtry-Langton in 1973, was inspired by African churches he’d seen built using poles, wattle and palm leaves. The massive zinc-clad buttresses of the hipped roof extend from the apex to the ground, over the plan which is essentially two overlapping squares with approximately 13m sides, one at 45 degree rotation to the other.
The roof section above the sanctuary carries a raised partly-glazed structure which lights the altar and bears a Celtic cross on the exterior face. The walls are of random-coursed limestone, and the roof of stone slates.
Either side of the altar are pairs of Dalle de Verre stained glass windows by Jane Duff, made by John Hardman Studios in Birmingham. The Risen Christ relief panel above the altar and the Celtic Cross were designed by John Ashworth, while the architect designed the curved pews and interior liturgical elements.
The listing follows the Twentieth Century Society’s application to English Heritage in 2008.
The Church of Our Lady and The First Martyrs was the first Church built in Great Britain with an Altar in the centre.
Completed in 1935, it preceded the restoration of the early principles of the Liturgy in the edicts of Vatican II, by twenty seven years.
Also celebrated in John Betjeman’s book on English Churches for its internal beauty, the building is now one the very few from the period of the 1930’s Listed Grade II by English Heritage.
The Client was Father John O’Connor, who was the real-life inspiration of the Author, G K Chesterton’s famous detective ‘Father Brown’.
A modern polygonal building of pleasing design, incorporating a number of features from the previous (1930) church.
The entrance is through a tripartite ‘Venetian’ doorway with a mosaic of the Virgin and Child in the central arch, brought from the old church. The oak entrance doors (also recycled from the old church) are set back, to create a recessed porch. These lead into a small narthex enclosed by screens incorporating old joinery, and then into the main space of the church. This is a single volume with a perimeter ring beam and ribs which sweep up to carry the roof and cupola. The ceiling is boarded, apart from the central bays, which have solid panels with raised top lighting on either side, on the entrance side incorporating new figurative stained glass with imagery from the Passion.
The fittings include a number of items from the old church. These include:
• The square stone neo-Byzantine font, placed in the sanctuary area
• The oak benches for the congregational seating (supplemented by some new ones in matching style)
• The crucifix hanging over the altar
• Stained glass window behind the altar (chalice and Host)
• Foundation stone from old church, in the priest’s confessional room
• Stations of the Cross, donated by parishioners in the 1930s
• The organ console (refitted by H. Groves & Sons)
• Statues of St Joseph, Our Lady of Lourdes, the Sacred Heart and St Theresa
• Tabernacle, brass candle sticks and sanctuary lamp (in area of reservation, to left of altar)
St Stephens Parish Church, Lindley
The St Albans design is an adaptation of a traditional long Nave Church plan, where the rearmost seating was a remote twenty five rows from the Sanctuary.
The triple-arch form of the Nave presented a unique opportunity to transform the plan of the Nave into a cruciform, with a High Altar placing that is no further than seven rows distant from the rearmost seat.
The original Sanctuary is reformed into a separate Weekday and Reconciliation Chapel. An arched illuminated ceiling coffer emphasises, architecturally, the reorientation of the ceremony of the Liturgy.
The scheme included a new house for the Parish Priest, and an adaptable Parish Centre, approachable from the Church. The lodge itself had served as a private residence, company headquarters and latterly a hotel.
The Sacred Heart Roman Catholic church in Ilkley is a remarkable blend of traditional and modern architecture, with an entrance porch and apse in Victorian Gothic and north and south nave extensions dating from the 1970s with a saw-tooth wall arrangement, inspired by Coventry cathedral.
More remarkable still is the complete glazing scheme of contemporary stained glass, all executed in the dalle de verre (‘slab of glass’) wherein thick chunks of coloured glass are set in a concrete or resin matrix (as opposed to traditional lead). The technique was popular in the 1960s and 70s but sharply declined since, largely due to many such windows latterly suffering from heat expansion, leakages or structural problems.
The exceptional scheme of dalle de verre windows at Ilkley includes both windows with concrete and windows with resin matrixes; The earliest windows are those in the apse which utilise concrete, being the work of Pierre Fourmaintraux of Whitefriars. The remaining windows in the nave were executed with resin and supplied by John Hardman Studios of Birmingham in the late 1970s.
These dalle de verre windows ably illustrate the richness and potential of large scale uses of the technique
Anglican and Methodist Church of St Matthew, Rastrick
The congregations of Halton Methodist Church and Halton United Reformed Church united to become a Local Ecumenical Project known as Christ Church Halton. The first meeting of the Christ Church Council was held on July 20th 1989 and a celebratory service was held on October 1st 1989. On November 6th 1989 Halton URC agreed to ask their Trustees to offer the buildings and site for tender. Plans were made for a new £600,000 Christ Church Halton by JH Langtry-Langton and the builders were WV Patrick Ltd. The old chapel was closed on October 14th 1990 and the start of building was on May 5th 1992: the URC was demolished by September 1992. The takeover at the new church was on April 9th 1993 and the church opened on Easter Sunday 1993