CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT)

CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT), OLD RUTTINGTON LANE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

1850-2 by George Gilbert Scott. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1241372
Date first listed:: 07-Sep-1973
List Entry Name:: CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT)
Statutory Address:: CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT), OLD RUTTINGTON LANE

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Date:: 2004-11-11
Reference:: IOE01/13316/33
Rights:: © Mr M.K Lofthouse. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1241372
Date first listed:: 07-Sep-1973
List Entry Name:: CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT)
Statutory Address 1:: CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT), OLD RUTTINGTON LANE

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT), OLD RUTTINGTON LANE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Kent
District:: Canterbury (District Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TR 15509 58157

Details

856/10/620 OLD RUTTINGTON LANE 07-SEP-73 CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY MUSIC CENTRE (FORMER CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT) (Formerly listed as: OLD RUTTINGTON LANE CHURCH OF ST GREGORY THE GREAT)

II 1850-2 by George Gilbert Scott.

MATERIALS: Knapped flint facing with limestone dressings. Red clay tile roofs

PLAN: Nave, chancel, N aisle, S porch, N vestry/organ chamber.

EXTERIOR: The church is built in the Geometrical style of the late 13th century. All the constituent parts are articulated under their own roofs. The two-storey vestry/organ chamber is under its own gabled roof. The nave has four bays and the chancel two. Over the nave/chancel junction there is a tall, two-tier triple bellcote. The W window, unusually, is larger than the E one. It is of four lights with quatrefoils and trefoils in the tracery: the E window only has three lights and has three cusped circles in its tracery. At the W end there is a W doorway, the gable of which breaks into the W window lights. The S side windows of the church have variously treated circles in their heads, while the N aisle N wall has paired lancets.

INTERIOR: The walls are plastered and painted. The four-bay N arcade has arches with one hollow chamfer and one sunk quadrant moulding. The piers are octagonal and have moulded capitals and bases. The chancel arch is richly moulded and its inner order is supported on corbels. The nave and chancel are covered by roofs of scissor-braced construction.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: All the fittings from the church have been removed apart from a tripartite wooden War memorial on the S wall of the nave. A mezzanine floor has been introduced into the two W bays of the N aisle following conversion to secular use.

HISTORY: This early Victorian church was closed in 1976, was sold in 1981 and the following April conversion work began to create a theatre for the-then Christ Church College. The building is now the Music Centre for Christ Church University.

The church is said to have been built as a memorial to Archbishop Howley (archbishop 1828-48). Funding was not an easy matter it seems and the church was scaled back from the original intentions and took a long time to build. In 1849 it was estimated to cost £3,425 and was to have a S aisle and a N chancel aisle. In the event the job was pared back to a contracted price of £2,240. The church was consecrated on 23 August 1852.

The architect for the church was George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) who began practice in the mid-1830s and became the most successful church architect of his day. Often criticised for over-restoration, his work was in fact usually very respectful of medieval buildings, while his new churches generally have a harmonious quality which so often derived their character from the architecture of the late C13 or early C14. He also designed a number of very important secular buildings, for example the Albert Memorial and the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras. He was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1859 and was knighted in 1872. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

SOURCES: Incorporated Church Building Society papers, Lambeth Palace Library, file 4205. Roger Homan, The Victorian Churches of Kent, 1984, p 42. John Newman, The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent, 1983, p 239.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Christ Church University Music Centre (former church of St Gregory the Great). is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is of special interest as a (former) church built in the style of the late 13th century by one of the leading church architects of the 19th century. As usual with his work, it is an assured, harmonious piece of Gothic Revival church building. Conversion to secular use has done nothing to detract from the exterior appearance while the interior architectural lines are largely preserved.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 27 October 2017.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 440406
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Websites
War Memorials Online, accessed 27 October 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/201968
War Memorials Register, accessed 27 October 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/41011

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.