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10.2.77
WEYBRIDGE
HEATH ROAD
(east side)
Church of St Charles
Borromeo with attached
presbyteries
(Part formerly listed as
Mausoleum of Louis
Phillippe attached to the
Church of St Charles
Borromeo)
GV
II*
Roman Catholic chapel, now sacristy, with church extension and two attached
presbyteries. Original chapel and presbytery c1834 by and for James Taylor;
church addition and the later presbytery 1880-81 by A E Purdie for James
Molineux Taylor and Marianne Taylor, altered and added to. Original chapel of
brick, stuccoed and incised and painted to imitate Bathstone; mastic roof.
Original presbytery of gault brick with slate roof. Later church addition and
presbytery of rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings, brick to rear of presby-
tery; plain tile roofs. Liturgical east used in description: ORIGINAL CHAPEL of
Greek cross plan with central dome having towers to west (stair) and east (over
chancel), shallow transepts to north and south, lower lean-to in north-west
angle, and tower porch (with access to crypt) in north-east angle. In Gothic
style, having: 4 centred-arched windows, with sashes with glazing bars or
diamond-paned metal casements; off-set angle buttresses with gabled finials,
those on inner sides of towers on head corbels; embattled towers; gabled
transepts, the flanking buttresses rising into crocketed finials on south side;
cornice below dome which is surmounted by glazed ogee light. Formerly entered
from doorway on west side, entrance now with 2-light window and access from
1880s Church. ORIGINAL PRESBYTERY attached to chapel on north-east: 2 storeys
with basement, square on plan. Offset angle buttresses; central gable with
oculus in tympanum to each side. Segmental-arched doorway with 4-panel door to
east side which is otherwise blind, as is west side; on north side, similar
basement doorway with formerly-shuttered 4-centred-arched window to right, two
similar windows above and two segmental-arched windows to 1st floor, all with
projecting stone sills and broken diamond-paned windows. Derelict at time of
inspection. 1880 CHURCH: 4-bay nave with north-west porch, west stair tower
(added), south chapel and north transept having added organ left with gabled
staircase and bellcotei 2-bay chancel with Lady Chapel. In Decorated style with
offset buttresses; traceried rose window to west end; windows of 3 cusped lights
with quatrefoils over to nave, similar but of 2 lights to chancel, otherwise
simpler lancets and cusped lights; gableted coping on kneelers to gables and
between nave and chancel; cross finials; ridge tiles to chancel. 1880s
PRESBYTERY to north-east not of special interest.
INTERIOR: original chapel: plan and fittings survive virtually intact, including
gallery with wrought-iron balustrade having grapevine design; glazed tympana
above gallery and position of former altar (removed to Lady Chapel); inset
mahogany pulpit with stairs from former presbytery; stained glass by Hailer.
1880s church: original plan and fittings survive, including west gallery with
openwork balustrade on arch-braced posts; sanctuary arch on marble columns with
Angel brackets; corbelled, arch-braced, collared roof trusses to nave with
Y-shaped upper trusses, collar purlin and wind braces; panelled timber chancel
roof. Tessellated floors to chancel and Lady Chapel; polished stone pulpit;
cusped, arcaded altar rail; richly-carved ciborium, tabernacle, Mandola-backed
exposition throne and Baldachino with finials and statues; niched plaster
statues between windows; painted stencil decoration to walls and roof of
sanctuary. Nave pews. Good collection of stained glass, possibly by Cox. Tomb
of Duchess of Nemours with recumbent effigy by L Chapu;memorial tablet to James
Taylor and members of his family.
HISTORY: the original chapel and presbytery were built shortly after the 1834
Catholic Emancipation Act by James Taylor (1795/6-1846) who was an important
figure involved in many pioneering early C19 Catholic building projects. The
chapel was used as a place of worship and burial by the Orleans family, exiled
from France (who stayed at Claremont) although their bodies have since been
removed.
The chapel is important as a good early example of such a building. The later
church is important in being an unusually unaltered example of late C19 Catholic
High Victorin church decoration.
REFERENCES: K Hotine, THE TAYLORS OF WEYBRIDGE (Guildford, 1982); K Hotine and
T Wingate, THE CHAPEL ON THE HEATH, THE ORIGINAL CHAPEL OF ST CHARLES BORROMEO,
WEYBRIDGE (1985)1 T E B Howarth, CITIZEN KING, LOUIS-PHILLIPPE KING OF THE
FRENCH (1961); BUILDING NEWS 9 September 1881, p 343.
Listing NGR: TQ0731064167
