St Charles'

Introduction

Designed by Charles Menart in Decorated Gothic style, the church stands in Newcastle upon Tyne.

History

The present church replaced an 1896 corrugated-iron church on the same plot donated by George Dunn Junior. Bishop Collins laid the foundation stone on 14 August 1910, and the church opened on 3 December 1911. Charles Menart was Belgian by birth but trained and practiced in Glasgow. After the Second World War three stained glass windows by Harry Clarke Studios were installed.

In 1970 a wide glass porch was added to the west end. In 1983 the west organ and choir gallery was enlarged and a new full width partition inserted. The interior was reordered in 1985-6, when the altar rails and baldacchino were removed and the sanctuary dais extended.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of rock-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings and blue-grey slate roofs. The church has a cruciform plan with an apsed chancel, vestry, three-bay aisled nave, short transepts, W porch, and NW and SW towers. The towers are surmounted by octagonal broached spires with gabled lucarnes and a crocket finial. The church's walls are clad in Italian marble slabs in cream, black and white.

The E window comprises four stained glass windows depicting scenes from the life of Christ, signed Atkinson Bros. The Lady Chapel has angel bosses from the dismantled baldacchino and a font comprising pieces of it. The transepts have high quality stained glass windows by Harry Clarke Studios: to the N a Pieta and to the S Adoration of the Shepherds and the Magi. In the N transept is a First World War memorial recording the names of the 36 Fallen from the parish, a large copy of Raphael's 'Sistine Madonna'.

The central window of the S side has a stained glass window by Harry Clarke Studios of Christ before Pilate. Hand carved marble Stations of the Cross are affixed to the walls of the aisles. The organ gallery is supported on a pair of slender cast-iron columns and a brass rail with Perspex panels.