Nottingham, Our Lady and St Patrick - Diocese of Nottingham

Our Lady and St Patrick in the Meadows
Launder Street, The Meadows, Nottingham NG2 1JQ
National Grid Reference SK 571 386
Statement of Importance
A modern church of hexagonal design serving a post-war housing
estate. Not of special architectural or historic interest.
Part 1: Core data
1.1. Listed grade: Not listed
1.2. Conservation Area: No
1.3. Scheduled Ancient Monument: No
1.4. Churchyard: No
1.5. Date: 1981
1.6. Architects: Bartlett & Gray
1.7. Date of visit: 2 August 2010
1.8. Name of report author: Andrew Derrick
1.9. Name of parish priest and/or contact(s) made on site: Rev Canon Michael Brown
1.10. Associated buildings: Parish hall
1.11. Bibliographic references:
Catholic Building Review (Southern edition), 1981
Harwood, E: Pevsner City Guides: Nottingham, Yale University Press, 2008

Part 2: The building, its contents and its setting
2.1. Historical background
Figure 1: The 1880 church (demolished)
The first church of Our Lady and St Patrick was in a converted warehouse in what is
now the Meadows area. This was replaced in 1880 by a new church in London Road,
built from designs by Evans and Jolly (Harwood, 247). Post-war comprehensive
redevelopment in the London Road area led to a loss of the resident population and a
decision to close that church in 1979. The new church was built in 1981 to serve the
New Meadows Housing Area. Plans in the Catholic Building Record (1981, 56) show a
large hall and presbytery but in the event only a smaller attached hall was built. The
church is served by Cathedral clergy.
2.2. The building and its principal fittings and furnishings
The church is hexagonal in plan, with a linked rectangular structure housing a lobby,
kitchens, WCs etc. It is of portal steel frame construction clad with brick panels, with
recessed full height windows behind exposed steel columns at the corners of the
hexagon. The pitched roof is clad in concrete tiles and terminates in a large glazed
roof light. The ancillary building is of load bearing brick and also has a concrete tiled
roof.
The interior is a single volume, lit from above and at the corners. The internal walls
are plastered and the roof clad in stained timber boarding. There are no modern
furnishings of note, but there are a number of statues and other furnishings (altar,
lecterns, cross, consecration stone outside) brought from the London Road church.
2.3. The church in its setting
The church lies within the modern residential setting of the Meadows housing estate,
not far from the city centre.

2.4. Listed status
The church is not listed and is not considered to be a candidate for listing.
Part 3: Managing the building into its future
3.1. Condition
Good.
3.2. Ancillary facilities
There is a parish hall, kitchen and WCs, all attached to the church.
3.3. Access
The church and its facilities are fully accessible.
3.4. To what extent is the building amenable or vulnerable to change
• As a consequence of remaining in use as a place of worship: The building is
fairly flexible in character (insofar as its hexagonal form allows) and there are
no heritage constraints.
• As a consequence of being closed as a place of worship and passing into
alternative secular use: The building could be converted to serve another,
possibly community use.
3.5. Category: 4