Church of Christ The King, Towyn

Introduction

The Church of Christ The King in Towyn, in the Diocese of Wrexham, was designed by the Bowen Dann Davies Partnership and built in 1973-74. It was built to serve the growing but highly seasonal population of Towyn.

History

Towyn was the second of three remarkable Catholic churches produced by Stewart Bowen and the Bowen Dann Davies Partnership between 1964 and 1976. The church suffered minor damage and was repaired after Towyn's sea defences were breached in 1990. The font and altar both have brick bases with polished Welsh slate above. The church survives almost unaltered.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is in the modernist vernacular style particularly associated with the Bowen Dann Davies Partnership, with low outlines, spreading roofs and a complex plan. The main space includes a hall that can be treated as an extension of the nave, and doors on the south side allow worshippers to participate in the Mass from outside. The church has a pitched roof with interlocking concrete tiles, honey coloured brick, and timber framed large panel windows and doors. The church has a rectangular plan stepped out in three main blocks from east to west, with the narrowest block at the east a mono-pitch.

The projecting westernmost corner of the roof rests on a brick pillar rising from a low garden wall connected at its far end to a small mono-pitch shed in the same materials as the church. The long low roofs reach down to chest height towards the east on the north side, with a clerestory thrust above the main eaves line to give a clerestory over the sanctuary. The interior has exposed pale brown brick, with ceiling and longitudinal beams all clad in timber boarding. The interior is well lit from both long elevations and the clerestory, and has an informal domestic character, enhanced by the ability to link hall with nave.

The main entrance leads into the hall via a small narthex with a slate holy water stoup. The nave is carpeted and incorporates a wide tiled side aisle, with timber panelled side storage bays for removable seating set in the lower slope of the roof. The aisle is lit by tall and narrow glazed panels at ground level on either side where the east wall steps out. The sanctuary is not delineated spatially: it simply forms a tiled platform raised above the nave by a single step.

Two timber posts and curtain rails serve to divide the hall from the nave when required. A planned partition wall within the confessional was never built, but it has two entrances, one from the rear of the hall and another from a passage. A passage from the entrance leads to the sacristy, kitchen (with servery hatch to hall), boiler room and WCs. There is a simple steel post lectern. The Stations of the Cross are set high on a longitudinal beam that marks the division between nave and aisle to the south.