Brighton and Hove – St Andrew, Portslade by Sea
Built of flint with bands of brick, E E Scott and his then partner, R G Suter (ICBS) designed the church in 1863 and it was consecrated the next year. It cost £1741 (PP 125) and is one of two churches on which they are known to have worked jointly. The windows are trefoiled lancets, mostly grouped, with a three-sided apse. A larger traceried window at the east end of the nave is in a gable. As built, it was a typical mission church with a light wooden division in place of a chancel arch and roofs with iron ties.
Sir R Blomfield added a gabled north aisle with plain lancets (ICBS) in 1889-91, costing £795 (CDK 1890 pt 2 p157), with a brick and stone arcade. He may also have designed the copper-clad belfry over the east end of the main nave, which does not look like work of 1863. In 1952-54 repairs to the roof were carried out by S Roth (ICBS).
Following a threat of redundancy in 2002, the nave was adapted in 2003-04 to become a community centre (Church Monuments Society Newsletter 18/2) by C Mercer (BE(E) p279), though more probably his daughter Caroline was responsible for the work by this date. It involved the replacement of the west windows of both nave and aisle by glazed entrances of the same overall proportions and the opportunity was taken to re-plan the area still used for worship, which was concentrated in the eastern part of the original church. Organisationally, the church has become a chapel of ease to the main parish church, with a corresponding reduction in the frequency of services.
Fittings
Font: Plain and round.
Glass:
1. (East lancets) Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 1896 (CDG 35 p140). These are no longer there.
2. (South nave window) Morris and Co, 1915. Posthumous figures by Sir E Burne-Jones (Sewter p155) set against.different backgrounds and very mechanical compared with work he himself oversaw.
3. (Apse) Single figures, Ward and Hughes, 1927 (WSRO Fac 2725). Almost monochrome in its effect and one of the last products of the company.
My thanks to Nick Wiseman for the colour photographs