Description

718/18/160 ST SAVIOUR'S ROAD
14-MAR-1975 CHURCH OF ST SAVIOUR
including gate piers, gates and iron railings to the W

II*
Church. 1875-77. By Sir G G Scott. English bond red brick with stone dressings and a stone spire; slate roof laid in diminishing courses with pierced ridge tiles. A mixture of Early English and Transitional styles with some Norman detailing. Plan of clerestoried nave, N and S aisles, N and S transepts, apsidal chancel with SE chapel and NE organ chamber and vestry, SW tower/porch.

EXTERIOR: Moulded brick eaves corbel table and set-back buttresses throughout. Apsidal buttressed 2-tier chancel with a lower tier of lancet windows and an upper tier of quatrefoil windows divided by brick pilasters. The nave has a striking W end with a shallow gabled porch with a richly-moulded W doorway with brick shafts with stone capitals. The porch is flanked by sexafoil windows in roundels with toothed moulding and moulded brick hoodmoulds. Above the porch there is a frieze of 6 lancet windows under an intersecting arcade of decorated moulded brickwork. Rose window in the gable which has stepped decoration to the verges. Triple lancet clerestory windows. The aisles have buttresses to the bays and lancet windows. The transepts are buttressed and have lancet windows and wheel windows in the gable, which have stepped brick decoration. Imposing 4-stage SW tower/porch with set-back buttresses with stone set-offs. Stone broach spire with 2 tiers of lucarnes. S doorway with a roll-moulded 2-centred doorway with brick shafts with stone bases and stiff-leaf capitals. 2-leaf door with ornamental strap hinges. Lancet windows with dogtooth moulding and brick shafts with stone capitals, the belfry windows large paired lancets. Brick corbel table below the tower.

INTERIOR: Brick and stone interior. Moulded brick arches with toothed decoration to the crossing, the arches on short stone shafts which have been painted white. Moulded stone arch to the sanctuary with shafts with waterleaf capitals. 2-tier tie beam roof to the nave and transepts with king posts and arch braces below the collar and a king post above and wind-braces. The nave has intermediate scissor-braced trusses. The crossing has a quadripartite rib vault with moulded stone ribs and a central carved boss. Timber rib vault to the choir. Plain brick dome to the apse. 4-bay N and S aisles with circular brick piers with waterleaf capitals supporting brick arches. The crossing piers are thicker and of polished granite. The sanctuary has encaustic floor tiles and a c.early C20 panelled dado with an integral panelled reredos with a carved frieze and cresting. Choir stalls with shouldered ends with roundel finials and open traceried fronts with toothed transoms. Stone drum pulpit with open arcading, the stonework painted white, on a circular brick stem, painted red. Font, painted white, with a square stone bowl with chamfered lower corners on an octagonal stem with a waterleaf capital. Nave benches with shouldered ends. The First World War SE memorial chapel is screened off with a screen of round-headed arches, a panelled dado and an altar to match. Good E and W stained glass windows of c.1880. Other windows include one signed T E Curtis of Ward and Hughes, dated 1914.

At the W end the small churchyard is defined by iron railings and gates hung off brick piers with stone caps. The W gateway has a an iron overthrow with a lamp-holder.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE:
This is a lofty and very imposing city church by Sir G G Scott with a massive tower which is a major landmark in this part of Leicester. The interior, which has many fittings surviving, has a notably fine series of roofs.

SOURCES.

Brandwood, G., The Anglican Churches of Leicester, 1984, 45-46.
Pevsner, Leicestershire and Rutland, 1984 edn., 243.
SK6039004856

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Saviour’s Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17553691

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
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  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]