Christ Church
CHRIST CHURCH, OLD LONDON ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1043454
- Date first listed:
- 14-Sept-1976
- List Entry Name:
- Christ Church
- Statutory Address:
- CHRIST CHURCH, OLD LONDON ROAD
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2005-08-14
- Reference:
- IOE01/14713/01
- Rights:
- © Mr D Godden. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1043454
- Date first listed:
- 14-Sept-1976
- List Entry Name:
- Christ Church
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHRIST CHURCH, OLD LONDON ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHRIST CHURCH, OLD LONDON ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- East Sussex
- District:
- Hastings (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 83612 11315
Details
HASTINGS
757/2/466 OLD LONDON ROAD 14-SEP-76 ORE (West side) CHRIST CHURCH
II Church. 1858 (dedication plaque on E wall) by A.D.Gough. Decorated style.
MATERIALS: Walls of random rubble construction in sandstone, N aisle on a brick plinth; slate roofs with crested ridge tiles.
PLAN: 5-bay nave with lower-roofed chancel with small lean-to S vestry and N organ chamber; N aisle, N transept (now a vestry); SW porch and SW bell turret.
EXTERIOR: All windows have flowing tracery, the nave and N aisle windows identical with carved dripstone terminals. The nave has buttresses with crocketted gables. Tall gabled W porch. 7-light W window with a Flamboyant traceried wheel in the head. Lean-to projections off the chancel are gabled to N and S. N aisle buttressed with a W window roundel with star tracery. The N transept has little flying buttresses, apparently original, to the retaining wall of the churchyard. Shallow gabled porch with a double-chamfered doorway, an outer iron gate with cross finials and a 2-leaf plank door with strap hinges. Distinctive octagonal SW bell turret, the most striking element of the exterior. This has a frieze of trefoil-headed open arcading below the stone spire.
INTERIOR: Notable for its naturalistic carved detail. Chancel arch on short stone shafts with carved corbels and capitals; the arch has an order of carved decoration. Above the chancel arch, a frieze of painted decoration. The N aisle arcade has octagonal piers with carved capitals. Substantial arch braced roofs on carved corbels to nave with intermediate trusses and complex curved braces above the collar. Aisle and chancel roofs similar. Pretty Decorated style chancel with a triple sedilia with marble shafts, carved capitals and trefoil-headed arches under a superordinate arch on the S wall. Encaustic tiles to chancel. The E wall has painted texts on either side of the E window and on the returns of the N and S walls. Painted text and frieze of painted decoration round the E window. This was re-painted in c. 1992. Early C20 timber reredos with symbols in cusped panels. Font with octagonal bowl with blind traceried panels. Polygonal timber pulpit, relatively plain. Late C19 nave benches with shaped ends. Canted stone screen to N transept, creating a vestry as a World War II Memorial.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: An intact and distinctive Gothic Revival church, by A.D. Gough. The outstanding exterior feature is its attractive bell tower. This church is characterised by its flowing tracery and naturalistic carved detail. The fittings are not exceptional, but the painted texts and frieze are noteworthy. The church incorporates a World War II Memorial in its vestry.
SOURCES N. Pevsner, 'Sussex' p. 520. Victoria County History: Sussex Volume IX p. 25. Peter Howell, 'Gough, Alexander Dick (1804-1871)' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 294029
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Nairn, I, The Buildings of England: Sussex, (1965), 520
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 07-Jun-2026 at 17:56:48.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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