St. Monica & St. Richard, Bootle

Introduction

Saint Monica & Saint Richard in Bootle is the masterpiece of Francis Xavier Velarde, one of the most original ecclesiastical architects of the twentieth century. The church's bold Modernist design was inspired by the work of the German Brick Expressionist architect Dominikus Bohm.

History

In 1922 Father Benedict Cain established the mission of St Monica in a large Victorian house at 3 Breeze Hill, Bootle. In 1935 Archbishop Downey laid the foundation stone and on 4 October 1936 he returned to open and bless the Church of St Monica. The sanctuary was re-ordered in the 1980s and the altar moved forward to its current position at the east end of the nave.

Architecture and furnishings

The church consists of a nave with aisles, a narthex and massive wide tower at the west end, and a sanctuary with north chapel and south organ/choir loft. The west end is formed of a flat-roofed narthex projection with a central entrance with a doorcase incorporating a canted tympanum panel decorated with a carved relief depiction of St Monica (probably by WL Stevenson). A series of seven small stones exist below the narthex's parapet with carved symbols and a date stone inscribed 'JCF 1936'. Above the west windows are three identical, very tall and slender angel relief sculptures with their heads bowed by the sculptor Herbert Tyson Smith.

The sanctuary has a 21-light mullion and transom north window arranged in three rows of seven (each light has a round-arched head) and a blind east gable end. Internally the church has exposed brick walls and doors of waxed oak. The nave, side aisles, north chapel, organ/choir loft and vestry areas have parquet flooring in double herringbone and brick half-bond patterns, with square-basket parquet flooring to the sanctuary. The narthex, which lies at the west end of the church, has been partitioned at each north and south end to create a disabled toilet and a small shop.

The tower has a flat ceiling with ribs arranged in a grid formation. A metal ladder stair with intermediary gantries is located to the north-east corner and provides access to the tower's roof. On its east side the tower opens up to the near full width of the nave with a giant round-arched opening (later structural supports have been added at the arch apex on each east and west side). The nave is an exceptionally tall space with a flat ceiling incorporating thin steel ribs that continue across the sanctuary ceiling where they are partly gilded.

The original pendant lights were removed and replaced by spotlights, which have since been replaced by pendant lights (installed in 2016) brought in from another church and altered to be sympathetic to the interior of St Monica's. Round-arched arcades exist to each north and south side of the nave and are formed of tall internal buttresses separated by transverse tunnel vaults. The aisles are pierced through the internal buttresses; that to the south is a full aisle, whilst that to the north is a passage aisle only. A shallow clerestory exists above.

Low-relief Eric Gill-style stations of the cross by WL Stevenson adorn the buttresses, whilst large stone angel reliefs affixed to the nave's north and south walls at the east end of the nave arcades are probably also by WL Stevenson. Block-like oak bench pews provided by the builders LH and R Roberts exist to the nave and south aisle. One of the confessionals has been knocked through to create access to an enclosed external walkway connecting to the presbytery. A lady chapel lies at the east end of the south aisle with an altar and a near life-size Eric Gill-style sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding an infant Jesus, which is reportedly by WL Stevenson.

At the east end of the nave is a large stepped, T-shaped dais/platform surmounted by a geometric blockwork stone altar and lectern, which were formed from the original altar that was moved forward in the 1980s and reduced in size. An octagonal font lies to the south-west of the altar platform. The church is built of pale buff brick with painted-concrete dressings and a green pantile roof. The nave and sanctuary have pitched roofs, while the rest of the church has flat roofs with parapets incorporating brick rowlock-course copings.

All windows have square-patterned leaded glazing, most with pale pink and blue coloured glass. The doorway contains square-panel oak doors, painted black on the external face but unpainted on the internal face, with slender vertical bronze handles. Surmounting the roof of the narthex is a tall metal crucifix.

Music and liturgy

The organ in the organ/choir loft was built by J W Walker and Sons. The sanctuary's north window has three black outline drawings of St Gregory, St Augustine and St Aidan on glass by Mrs WG Holford, Rome scholar.