Former Mariners Church England, UK

Listed Building Reasons For Designation

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

The St Ives Society of Artists' Gallery, formerly the Mariners' Church in Norway Square, is recommended for designation at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: the building has been, since 1945, the gallery of the St Ives Society of Artists, and has exhibited the work of internationally-significant artists based in the St Ives artists' colony since that time * Historic association: the gallery showed work by members of the Society, including the Crypt Group, a group of modern artists including Barbara Hepworth, Bryan Wynter and Peter Lanyon, and gave many such significant figures their first opportunity to exhibit in public * Group value: with the Porthmeor Studios and St Ives School of Painting (listed Grade II*), with which the gallery has strong cultural and historic associations, and the listed fishermen's cottages and related buildings in Norway Lane and Back Road West, for whose occupants the church had originally been built * Architectural interest: the building was constructed in 1903-5 to a design by E H Sedding, as a place of worship for the fishing community of St Ives, in a robust Gothic style with some good detailing

Listed Building Description

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

ST IVES

678/0/10016 NORWAY SQUARE 16-NOV-10 (South side) Former Mariners' Church

GV II A former church, now the gallery of the St Ives Society of Artists, built in 1903-5 in Gothic style to a design by Edmund Harold Sedding (1863-1921) by Robert Toy of St Ives.

MATERIALS: Constructed from red granite, dressed and brought to course, with dressings of Polyphant greenstone, under a Delabole slate roof.

PLAN: The building is orientated north-west to south-east, with the ritual east end at the south-east end; ritual compass points are used in this description. It has a simple plan of nave and slightly narrower chancel, with a polygonal apse to the east end.

EXTERIOR: The building, a high single storey to the west, is set on steeply sloping ground, with a basement fully expressed at the east end. The main entrance is in the west end, approached by a short flight of granite steps with solid balustrades to either side, terminating in ball finials; the small forecourt is bounded by a stepped boundary wall, within which a set of granite steps leads down to the basement. The west end of the building is gabled, and has a large circular window above paired chamfered, pointed-arched doorways set in a pointed-arched surround with drip-mould, Y-tracery and a statue niche with octagonal base, moulded canopy and traceried back. The doors throughout are pointed-arched, multiple-panelled examples. To either side of the nave, six tall lancets with trefoil heads light the building; they house timber replacement windows; to the basement, there are rebated window surrounds, those to the north side blocked, those remaining fitted with glass blocks. There is an entrance doorway giving access to the basement from the shallow courtyard surrounding the building; the door is set in a pointed-arched, moulded surround. The south side has a row of six statue niches similar to those on the west doorway, set below the lancet windows and aligned with them. The polygonal chancel has buttresses with two offsets rising full-height from the foot of the basement to the eaves. The lancets retain their original leaded windows. A truncated bell-turret is set in the return between the nave and chancel on the south side, terminating in a flat roof; the belfry is articulated by a trefoil-headed lancet with louvres and drip-mould.

INTERIOR: Internally, the high main body of the church has a wagon roof with moulded ribs and purlins articulating the bay structure, and plain plaster panels between. The walls are plastered and painted white. A pointed chancel arch separates the nave from the slightly narrower chancel, which terminates in a polygonal apse; the roof, which is continuous with that of the nave, has radiating ribs articulating the ceiling. The nave windows are set within recessed arched panels. The nave floor is set with parquet blocks in blond wood; the chancel floor is set slightly higher, and is reached by a flight of steps between moulded stone balustrades. The basement, formerly the crypt, is divided into two rooms, the larger beneath the nave, and a smaller one beneath the former chancel. The main structural bays are expressed by rolled-steel joists which support the concrete floor above. A narrow winder staircase rises within the bell-turret, giving access to the floor above. The walls are plastered apart from the south wall, which has exposed pointed rubble stonework. The floors are of parquet.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The church is bounded to the west end by a stepped granite wall, following the fall of the ground from north to south. The late C20 railings which top the wall are not of special interest.

HISTORY: The town of St Ives was almost wholly concerned with fishing during the C19, and the former mariners' church was constructed in 1903-5 in memory of Canon John Balmer-Jones, to provide an Anglican place of worship as an alternative to the strong Non-conformist con