Church of All Saints

Details

856/10/564 MILITARY ROAD
07-SEP-73 (Southeast side)
CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS

(Formerly listed as:
MILITARY ROAD
GARRISON CHURCH OF ST ALBANS)

II
1844, architect not known. Internal partitions probably of 1975-6.

MATERIALS: Kentish ragstone laid crazy-paving-wise, limestone dressings. Slate roof

PLAN: Eight-bay nave, small chancel.

The church is oriented towards the SW so all directions given here are liturgical.

EXTERIOR: The style of the building draws upon motifs from 13th-century Gothic architecture. The nave is long and broad and at the E end is a lower, much narrower short chancel. The nave is demarcated by buttresses with offsets and in each bay is a lancet window: the chancel E wall has three graded lancets. There are two doorways in the N wall of the nave. The centre part of the W front breaks forward slightly, has a plain W doorway, a small window over this and, at the apex of the nave roof, a single-light bellcote. The corners and centre of the nave are marked by pinnacles resembling chimney-pots (gone from nave SE and SW corners)

INTERIOR: The walls are plastered and whitened. The four W bays of the nave have been partitioned off from the worship area for meetings and community activities. There is a plain arch with a hood from the nave to the chancel. Over the worship area there is a flat ceiling sloping towards the E. Screen walls have been erected in front of the original chancel to create a small chapel within it.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: At the W end is a five-bay cast-iron arcade with very flat four-centred arches to support the original W gallery. An early 16th-century brass has been relocated here from St Mary Northgate: it is to Ralph Brown, mayor of Canterbury in 1509, and has an image of him with an inscription in English. The 20th-century glass in the NW window of the worship area was brought from the nearby St Gregory's church (now the Music Centre for Christ Church University) in 1980.

HISTORY: This was originally the church that served Canterbury's Northgate Barracks and was built in 1844. As with other garrison churches it was designed to hold large numbers of men. The two doors on the N plus the W entrance clearly show they were expected to arrive en masse. After it became redundant and a period of closure, it was purchased by the diocese for £44,000 in 1975 and opened as a parish church in 1976.

SOURCES: Roger Homan, The Victorian Churches of Kent, 1984, p 42.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
The church of All Saints is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is of special interest as a former garrison church built in early Victorian times and built in the Early English Gothic style of the 13th century.



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