St Michael

The church was designed by JEK Cutts (1847 - 1938) a well known and prolific church architect, pupil of Ewan Christian (architect for the National Portrait Gallery). The church is a unique structure and stands as landmark, strategically located at the junction of six roads.

From the outside, the church is a large, tall and imposing red brick construction in Early English style with a steep pitched slate roof. A small brick flat roofed porch stands at the west end of the church. Above it, a tall three lancet gothic window is framed by two narrow buttresses. A small bell is set in an arched recess at the top of the west elevation with a pinnacle on each side. Stepped buttresses run along the walls of the south and north aisles.

In the inside, the building comprises a five bay nave with a tall clerestory, north and south aisles, a chancel, a morning chapel, a short north transept with an organ chamber, clergy and choir vestries. The main entrance of the church is from the west, through the porch into the nave, via the hall built in 1972. The fine proportions of the nave and chancel with the distinctive east stained glass window form an impressive internal space. Two arcades, supported by stone columns, separate the nave from the aisles. The walls and spandrels in the arcades and clerestory are plastered and painted white, creating a visual contrast with the brick arches to the windows and arcades. The clerestory windows are two lancets and a circle in the head with clear lights within each bay. The nave and chancel roofs are supported by exposed timber scissor trusses. The chancel floor is covered with multicoloured ceramic tiles. The font stands at the southeast end of the nave and the pulpit at the north-east end of the nave. The reredos sits against the east wall of the chancel, below the stained-glass window. Quality stained glass is also found in the windows of the north and south aisles.

The church retains many of its original features, including an octagonal marble font and a stone pulpit; quality stained glass windows by Heaton, Butler and Bayne; an oak reredos, wrought-iron screen and a stained glass window by Messrs Maile & Sons Ltd; two stained-glass windows by Kelley & Co. A distinctive series of paintings by M Batu is a later addition. The font (1885) is octagonal, carved of Devonshire marble with a decorated steeple timber cover. The pulpit (1889) is octagonal, stone traceried and supported by marble columns.