Description

Pugin and Pugin, 1898. Gabled, basilica-plan, gothic church, 5-light lancet above paired doors to SE end. Squared and snecked, bull-faced red sandstone with ashlar margins. Moulded eaves course. Hoodmoulds to principal openings, flowing tracery.

SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: 2-bays to entrance in gabled end of nave, paired segmentally-arched doors flanking central niche containing statue of Mary with child on octagonal plinth; traceried 5-light cusped window in panelled pointed arch recess with continuous hoodmould, stone mullions and transom. Coped buttresses. Jettied gablehead, small cusped window, quatrefoils above and flanking, cross finial to apex. Single storey aisles flanking nave; half-gabled bay to left, 3-light segmentally-arched window; octagonal return of baptistery to outer right bay, piended roof with cross finial at apex.

NW (REAR) ELEVATION: 3-bays, canted apse, piended roof; 3-light segmentally-arched windows to clerestorey bays; single storey, 3-bay, lean-to sacristy.

NE (SIDE) ELEVATION: 8-bay. Regular fenestration to clerestorey and aisle; tripartite stone mullioned segmentally-arched windows, engaged pilasters; additional lancet to outer right bay of clerestorey; bow end to outer left of aisle; door to far right bay, single storey gabled addition to outer right, 4-light segmental arch window.

SW (SIDE) ELEVATION: mirror to S except door to first bay right; Centre bays to aisles partially obscured by low, flat roof block with single cusped narrow windows.

Diamond pattern leaded windows. Graduated grey slates, lead flashing. Coped parapet to SW gable, cross finial to NE end of roof ridge, Moulded and decorated cast-iron guttering and hoppers.

INTERIOR: aisled with apse exposed roof beams and rafters supported upon moulded stone corbels. Pointed arch bays to aisles supported by plain sandstone columns with low relief carving to neck. Some original encaustic tiles preserved in baptistery. Original Pugin and Pugin woodwork including pews.

PRESBYTERY: 2-storey with attic, 4-bay, rectangular-plan house. Square and snecked red sandstone coursers. Piended roof, prominent gabled bay to right. Base course, dividing band between floors, eaves course. Predominantly bipartite windows, stone mullions, chamfered reveals. SE (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: steps to door to centre right, bipartite, pointed arch fanlight, stopped hoodmould; bipartite window to upper storey; bipartite, timber framed, gabled roof dormer. 2-storey, advanced canted windows to right, coped parapet; kneelered gable above, window to gablehead, cross finial to apex. Single window to left of door, bipartite to outer left. NW (REAR) ELEVATION: bipartite windows to outer left bay, steps to sunk basement, single windows to central bay; large tripartite stair window to upper storey right, stone mullions and transom, gabled covered passage to sheds adjoining to ground; bipartite windows to outer right bay. 2 gabled roof dormers. NE (SIDE) ELEVATION: single window to each storey, gabled dormer to centre. SW (SIDE) ELEVATION: single window to each storey, wallhead chimney to centre. MOdern glazing. Grey slates, lead flashing. Coped skews with gablet skewputts. Coped ridge stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

BOUNDARY WALL, GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: dwarf wall, bull-faced red sandstone coursers, saddle-back coping; finialled cast-iron railings. Octagonal gatepiers, crown caps.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building still in use as such. Part of Pugin and Pugin's chain of churches built for the Diocese of Glasgow between 1880 and 1910. The Basilica plan had become the British Catholic standard by 1860 after E W Pugin and always laid out according to a set formula that is:1. West end porch or narthex supporting a gallery for the choir and organ, 2. Baptistery or mortuary chapel at west end of aisles, 3. Wide aisles with widely spaced arcades to nave, 4. Shallow chancel to east end with side altars and altars to east end of aisles, 5. Spacious sacristies. Like St Patrick Sheildmuir in Wishaw (see separate listing), the cathedral follows this formula in plan and is most similar to St Peter Patrick, Glasgow, 1898 in its West End elevation. St Patrick Sheildmuir was the practice's first church with an asymmetrical elevation but the cathedral continued this new approach a year late.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Motherwell Cathedral at Wikipedia
• Motherwell Cathedral official website
• Wikidata IDs Q17826514 Q2942264

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

• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)