Description

PRESTON

SD5329 ST PETER'S SQUARE
941-1/6/266 (North side)
12/06/50 St Peter's Arts Centre, University
of Central Lancashire

GV II*

(Formerly Listed as Central Block of Lancashire Polytechnic
Arts Centre)
Formerly known as: Church of St Peter FYLDE ROAD.
Church, now Arts Centre. 1822-5, by Rickman and Hutchinson,
steeple 1851-2 by Mitchell (Pevsner); altered. Sandstone
ashlar (roof concealed by parapet). Nave with north and south
aisles, west porches at the ends of these, chancel with added
north organ house and south vestry, and south-east steeple in
angle between aisle and chancel. Decorated style. The 6-bay
nave has square-headed 2-light clerestory windows with cusped
lights and hoodmoulds with figured stops, an embattled
parapet, and at the west end a small 2-light window with
cusped mouchette tracery, tall embattled corner turrets, and a
large crocketed bellcote on the apex. The buttressed aisles (6
bays on the north side and 5 on the south) have 2-centred
arched 3-light windows with cusped circular and mouchette
tracery in alternating designs, and hoodmoulds with figured
stops. Attached at the east end are 2 tall rectangular porches
with a lower link between, all with 2-light windows and
embattled parapets, the south porch with an arched south
doorway and the north porch now linked to a C20 glazed
extension. The chancel has (inter alia) a large 2-centred
arched 5-light window with mouchette tracery, and embattled
corner turrets. All the windows have small
geometrical-patterned cast-iron glazing. The 3-stage tower,
with angle buttresses and south-west stair-turret, has a
3-light window to the 1st stage with reticulated tracery,
bands of blind arcading to the 2nd stage, a 3-light louvred
belfry window in each side with cusped tracery and crocketed
ogival hoodmould, an embattled parapet with crocketed corner
pinnacles and arched flying buttresses pierced with
mouchettes, and a crocketed spire with lucarnes and
weathervane.
INTERIOR: 5-bay aisle arcades of octagonal columns with
moulded caps carrying moulded 2-centred arches which have
linked hoodmoulds with figured stops; large chancel arch in
similar style; galleries on 3 sides, filling the west bay but
set back under the aisles, carried by delicate cast-iron
segmental arcading on slender columns, with cusped decoration
to the soffits and cusped quatrefoils and mouchettes in the
spandrels, and square-panelled front with cusped decoration in
the panels; wall monument to Thomas German (d.1847) in south
aisle, in Gothick style; tiled floor in base of tower, square,
with buff, blue and red foliated designs and inner border with
continuous lettering in Gothic script "THIS TOWER AND SPIRE
WERE ERECTED BY THOMAS GERMAN ALDERMAN AND TWICE MAYOR OF THIS
BOROUGH IN MEMORY OF ELLEN HIS WIFE AD MDCCCLI". History:
Commissioners' church, cost »6900, plus German bequest of
»1000 for tower.

Listing NGR: SD5341929925

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Peter's Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7595276

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)