Listed Building Description:

CHELTENHAM SO92SW TEWKESBURY ROAD 630-1/1/893 (South side) Church of St Peter II* 12/03/55

Parish church. 1847-8. Architect, SW Daukes; builder, Thomas Haines. West window of 1858, by William Wailes. Cost £4,838. Stone with plain tile roofs. Romanesque style. Cruciform plan with large central dome.

EXTERIOR: tall central crossing tower with circular upper stage and conical roof. 4-bay nave, wide transept, short chancel and apse. Windows: single-light windows with cogged moulding to heads and round-arched hoodmoulds. East end has 3 tall round-arched lights. Tower has twin belfry openings with central column and round arch, pyramidal roof.

INTERIOR: Norman style with chevron tower arches and dome. Use of semicircular arch bracing to the roof is in harmony with the 'Classical' forms of the Romanesque style used. Galleries in the north and south transepts and to west end supported on wooden columns with scalloped capitals. Neo-Norman plaster-work. Goodhart-Rendel considered this a 'really a great success'. Teresa Sladen has described this as 'an important early Victorian church on account of its unusual and early use of the Romanesque style, (relating to) indigenous examples .. such as the Round Church at Cambridge, restored in 1841 and extravagantly praised by The Ecclesiologist'.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Daukes took over The Park development from Thomas Billings. (Sampson A and Blake S: A Cheltenham Companion: Cheltenham: 1993-: 119; Blake S: Cheltenham's Churches and Chapels AD 773-1883: Cheltenham: 1979-: 30-31; The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 130; Sladen T: Notes: 1995-; Howell P and Sutton I: Faber Guide to Victorian Churches: London: 1989-: 25). Listing NGR: SO 93855 23355. {Source Work 2378.}

Tewkesbury Road, Cheltenham. Built 1847-9 by Samuel Whitfield Daukes. Stone built, cruciform plan. Romanesque. Large central crossing tower with circular upper stage and conical roof. Tiled roofs. Four bay nave, wide transept, short chancel and apse. Good Norman interior with chevron tower arches, and dome. Painting and gilding contribute to a rich effect. {Source Work 150.}

The Church of St Peter was built in 1847-8 it is an early and notable example of the 'Victorian Romanesque', its high circular lantern tower dominating both interior and exterior and allowing light to flood into the building from all directions. The foundation stone was not laid until 6th September 1847. The church was completed by December 1848 and consecrated on 23rd March 1849. The expected growth in the population of the mid-late 19th century parish never in fact happened on the scale envisaged and as a result the church was found to be too large for its community. St Paul's was closed in 2008 and was not in use at the time of survey in Spring 2009. However, plans were then in progress for its adaptation to use as the new headquarters of the '@The Rock' youth group. {Source Work 10912.}

1973 - Photo in Country Life magazine. {Source Work 11836.}

1966-1970 - The church is noted as a good example of Neo-Norman work in a review of the development of churches across Gloucestershire. The apse is particularly noted, though the building is marred by the presence of a dome. {Source Work 10166.}