Catholic Church of Christ the King

Cadw's description

Location

On the W side of Gors Road, opposite Llys Glyndwr, behind contemporary railings and gates.

History

Catholic church of 1973-74 by the architectural practice the Bowen Dann Davies Partnership (BDDP), with Bill Davies the partner-in-charge and I G Davies as the project architect. The contractor was Anwyl Construction. Construction cost was £30,000.

Towyn is on low lying estuary land west of the Clwyd which was drained by Act of Parliament late in the eighteenth century. By 1949 it remained only a small, dispersed village, but over the next two decades grew rapidly as cheap land was brought up for holiday chalets and caravan parks as well as permanent homes. Christ the King was built to accommodate the needs of this growing but highly seasonal population.

The Bowen brothers of Colwyn Bay had built their practice on mock-Tudor and Arts and Crafts influenced private houses in the inter-war period and from 1950 onwards Stewart Powell Bowen had built up the practice with larger public housing schemes. He also embraced architectural Modernism with notable works such as the houses at Pen y Bryn Road, Colwyn Bay (see Listed Building 87759). The Bowen Dann Davies Partnership (BDDP) formed in 1970 with Stewart Bowen’s long-time protégé William Davies made a partner and joined by Frank Dann, formerly of PM Padmore’s practice in Llanfairfechan. The partners’ interests in North Wales vernacular styles and materials, always latent in the work, became more overt and critically celebrated in the 1970s. A 1982 in house design guide for the practice stated: “The quality of our landscape and our relatively severe climate deserve architectural solutions which will continue to provide valid and recognisable regional form … while accepting economical modern materials.”

Towyn was the second of three remarkable Catholic churches produced by Stewart Bowen and the Bowen Dann Davies Partnership (BDDP) between 1964 and 1976, an era of bold experiments in ecclesiastical architecture following the Second Vatican Council. The first was Our Lady of Lourdes at Benllech (1964-5, see Listed Building 87908) by Bowen, for which Bill Davies contributed all the architectural work. Christ the King in Towyn followed in 1973-4, and finally St Illtyd’s in nearby Rhuddlan was completed in 1976 (see Listed Building 87906). These three churches are very different in appearance, but all share a set of architectural ideas marrying BDDP’s critical regionalism with the post-war Liturgical Movement in Church design. Firstly, they use modular spaces, expressed externally, so that the church can easily adapt to the wide fluctuations in size of congregation produced by North Wales’ seasonal tourist industry. Secondly, they seek harmony with their surrounding landscape and townscape through low lying massing and choice of sympathetic materials. Finally, they are notable for the use of asymmetrical roofscapes harnessing natural light to emphasise the altar internally.

The church suffered minor damage and was repaired after Towyn’s sea defences were breached in 1990.

Exterior

Church in the modernist vernacular style particularly associated with BDDP, developed in response to the landscape and climate of N Wales. Characteristic features of the style displayed here include low outlines, spreading roofs and a complex plan. A striking feature of the design is flexibility in response to fluctuating congregation size: the main space includes a hall which can be treated as an extension of the nave, and doors on the S side allow worshippers to participate in the Mass from outside.

Pitched roof with interlocking concrete tiles, honey coloured brick, timber framed large panel windows and doors. Rectangular plan but stepped out in three main blocks from east to west, with narrowest block at the east a mono-pitch, with horizontal timber panelling on its south side over ribbon window to sacristy. The projecting westernmost corner of the roof rests on a brick pillar rising from a low garden wall connected at its far end to a small mono-pitch shed in the same materials as the church. Long low roofs reaching down to chest height towards east on north side, with clerestory thrust above the main eaves line to give a clerestory over the sanctuary. Entrance and fenestration in long elevations, sheltered by projection of eaves.

Beside the entrance is a free-standing timber lattice tower with a large cross at its peak, high above the church, its three posts of varying height with bevelled tops sloping inwards, possibly inspired by the concrete spire of Clifton Cathedral, Bristol, completed in 1973 (LB 1271209).

Interior

Internal finishes of exposed pale brown brick, ceiling and longitudinal beams all clad in timber boarding. The interior is well lit from both long elevations and the clerestory, and has an informal domestic character, enhanced by the ability to link hall with nave.

Main entrance into hall via small narthex with slate holy water stoup. Carpeted nave incorporating wide tiled side aisle, with timber panelled side storage bays for removable seating set in lower slope of roof. Aisle lit by tall and narrow glazed panels at ground level on either side where the east wall steps out. Sanctuary not delineated spatially: it simply forms a tiled platform raised above nave by a single step. Font and altar are both on this platform: both have brick bases with polished Welsh slate above. Simple steel post lectern. Stations of the Cross set high on longitudinal beam that marks division between nave and aisle to the S.

Two timber posts and curtain rails serve to divide the hall from the nave when required. A planned partition wall within the confessional was never built but it has two entrances, one from rear of hall and another from passage. Passage from the entrance also leads to the sacristy, kitchen (with servery hatch to hall), boiler room and WCs.

Reason for designation

Included for its special interest as a fine example of a post-war Catholic church in Wales, and of the work of Bill Davies and the Bowen Dann Davies Partnership. The modernist vernacular idiom with which the Partnership is particularly associated, allied to the reforming ideas of the Second Vatican Council, is beautifully exemplified in a building that is especially sensitive both to its landscape and social context. The church survives almost unaltered.