Description
A square-plan Roman Catholic Church in the Brutalist style, built 1971-3 to designs by John Duncan Henderson Mackenzie, incorporating a narrow rectangular-plan presbytery to the east. The church is located on the west side of Fallside Road in Bothwell with a car park to the south and the presbytery garden to the north. A monastery (for cloistered nuns) abuts the church to the west linked by two corridors with a small courtyard cloister between (this section of the site is excluded from the listing).
The church is composed as a three-stage stepped pyramid, with two double-chamfered stages topped by a pyramidal lantern. The upper stages and lantern are surrounded by clerestory windows (replaced in the 1990s). The walls are constructed from rendered concrete blocks and the roofs are sheeted in aluminium.
In the centre of the south elevation is semi-circular former baptistry with a spiralled profile. There are multiple entrances in the south elevation recessed beneath the first stage, mostly consisting of red pine glazed door screens. The two main pairs of double doors are enclosed within a glazed porch, added 2011-12. There is a secondary entrance (also glazed 2011-12) in the east elevation.
The presbytery consists of two storeys at the north end with the first floor extending to the south over part of the church vestibule. On the east elevation there is a shouldered external chimneystack at the south end, a chamfered staircase tower towards the centre (both of which rise above roof level) and at the north end an advanced single-storey garage. The entrance to the presbytery is between the staircase tower and the garage. At first-floor level is a horizontal band of casement windows (replaced in the 1990s). The interior of the presbytery has been largely updated in the early-21st century.
The interior of the main worship space is large and open with an expansive pyramidal roof comprised of steel beams sheeted in red pine and with an inverted pyramid at the centre of the upper lantern. There are low perimeter walls with colourful geometric stained-glass windows in the west and south elevations. In the four corners the walls rise to the level of the lower clerestory in irregular fin-like partitions which form an irregular octagon. The sanctuary is at the north side, carpeted and raised on three steps with a black timber fretwork canopy suspended from the clerestory above. On the wall above the altar is a metalwork relief of the Last Supper and around the walls are metalwork roundels depicting the Stations of the Cross.
In the northwest corner is a separate chapel for the nuns to access from the monastery. The dividing screen wall has a frosted glass and timber shuttered screen with a chrome rotating tabernacle that can be accessed from both the main sanctuary and the nun's chapel. The northeast corner wall encloses the sacristy and, within the church, has an alcove housing a statue of the Virgin Mary with a smaller canopy matching that above the main altar. There is a vestibule in the southeast corner with two entrances into the main space, containing a statue of St Brigid and two tall narrow stained-glass panels looking into the body of the church. Above the entrance from the vestibule is a small pipe organ by J W Walker with a neoclassical case.
Throughout the church interior there are rough plastered walls, red pine timber ceilings and terracotta quarry floor tiles. The main body of the church contains a collection of matching red pine furnishings, including altar, ambo (pulpit), font and pews.
Historical development
The site of St Bride's Church is shown on the Ordnance Survey National Grid map (published 1964) as a vacant site to the southwest of the Kirklands Hospital (demolished and rebuilt circa 1990). At that time, the Catholic community worshipped in a building near the south end of Fallside Road on the opposite side from the present site, labelled in 1938 as a miners' welfare institute. There was also a Catholic school in Bothwell from at least 1910 located to the southeast of the town centre on Langside Road.
When St Bride's Church was constructed in 1971-3, Fallside Road was largely undeveloped and there were few buildings between the Kirklands Hospital and the village centre. Following the dismantling of the Bothwell Junction railway lines (finally closed in 1961), the area between Bothwell and Uddingston was gradually infilled in the last decades of the 20th century by housing developments and by the Bothwell Park Industrial Estate on the south side of Uddingston. St Bride's was established early on in this development as a place of worship within the new community.
The Catholic diocese of Motherwell was established out of the Archdiocese of Glasgow as a suffragan (subordinate) see in May 1947, along with the Diocese of Paisley. These new administrative areas provided for the high population of Catholics in the hinterland of Glasgow where industry (especially the extensive coal fields) had attracted large numbers of migrants from Ireland and the Highlands. The mid-20th century was a highly optimistic period in the global Catholic Church, influenced by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-5). Projections of growth resulted in ambitious building programmes in several parts of Britain and Ireland, notably represented in the output of the Glasgow architectural practice Gillespie Kidd and Coia. Between its establishment in 1947 and the year 1990, some 37 new churches were erected in the Diocese of Motherwell.
The Catholic parish of St Bride's in Bothwell was established in 1910 adopting the name of the 14th-century St Bride's Collegiate Church in the town, now the Presbyterian parish church (listed at category A, ref: LB5134). The 5th-6th century abbess, St Brigid of Kildare (in Scotland St Bride), is one of the three patron saints of Ireland, alongside St Patrick and St Columba. Lanarkshire had a longstanding association with the saint evidenced by medieval church dedications and placenames at Bothwell, Douglas, East Kilbride and West Kilbride.
The monastery of Poor Clare nuns attached to the new St Bride's Church was constructed at the same time at a cost of £100,000 and also opened in 1973. The community had been founded in 1952 by five nuns from Cork who occupied a house in Blantyre before growing in number and moving to the purpose-built monastery in Bothwell. A small cemetery for the Poor Clare nuns remains to the north of the monastery at St Bride's.
The church building remains substantially unaltered both in terms of external form and internal detailing. In 2011-2, a glazed porch was added to the south elevation, enclosing the main entrances, and the secondary entrance in the east elevation was also glazed in. The setting and carpark of the church were also re-landscaped with the addition of new paving and fencing on Fallside Road.
Statement of Special Interest
St Bride's Church meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:
- It is a good example of an early 1970s Roman Catholic church reflecting the liturgical developments of the Second Vatican Council.
- It has a notable Brutalist design, featuring an innovative pyramidal roof structure and high material quality throughout, particularly to its interior.
- It retains much of its original design features and later alterations have not adversely affected the historic character and legibility of the building.
- It is a prominent and unusual building within its setting, with links to the adjoining monastery and the surrounding housing developments.
- It is an unusual example within its prolific building type of a church with the presbytery incorporated into principal building design and with provisions made for both a cloistered community and a regular congregation.
In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the Monastery and Church Hall.
Architectural Interest:
Design
St Bride's Church dates from 1971-3 and is a good example of a Roman Catholic church built in the decades after the liturgical reform that followed the Second Vatican Council (1962-5), distinguished by its innovative design and by its high-quality interior.
The external design of the building is influenced by the Brutalist style, evident in the restrained external material palette of roughcast render and aluminium cladding. Likewise, the horizontal tiers of the pyramid resemble the layering typical of Brutalist megastructures, while elements like the baptistry, chimney, staircase and garage displaying a characteristic interest in expressive forms. The incorporation of the presbytery (and garage) into a coherent design united with the church adds to the design interest, reminiscent of the wider interest in megastructures in the mid-20th century as a principle for grouping multiple functions within an overall complex. This multi-purpose aspect of St Bride's Church is further emphasised in the physical connection to the attached monastery (built around the same time although aesthetically distinct).
The church reflects the changing architectural and liturgical ideas of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s, notably in its freestanding altar, open centralised plan and sculptural roof form. The liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council led to widescale experimentation with square, circular and octagonal plans to create open worship spaces with reduced hierarchical boundaries in which the altar could be brought closer to worshippers. Architects also explored the possibilities of new geometric and natural roof forms in connection with these plans, following the influential example of Le Corbusier's chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, France, with its dramatic sweeping concrete roof. These developments are evidenced in many of the new churches built in the Motherwell and Paisley dioceses (for example St Anthony's, Rutherglen, and St Fergus's, Paisley, both unlisted). However, the stepped pyramidal form sets the design of St Bride's apart with a striking appearance in profile and on plan. Its variation on the pyramidal form is distinctive and compares well with other listed examples like Anderston Kelvingrove Church of Scotland (1965-8; listed category B, ref: LB52172), St Mungo's Church of Scotland, Cumbernauld (1963-4; listed category B, ref: LB46977) and St Andrew's RC Church, Livingston (1968-70; listed category B, ref: LB52188).
The church is further distinguished from many others of its date by the quality of its interior detailing and craftsmanship. The timber-clad steel-frame roof structure provides a striking internal volume that is a material contrast to the stark Brutalist exterior. The space is characterised by the complex structural forms, the expanses of white plastered lower walls, the warmth of the timber cladding and the flood of light from the two tiers of clerestory windows. The overall effect is a highly effective interior space with a strong interplay of light, form and materials.
The church furnishings and decorations also add to the design interest, being largely bespoke and of good quality. These include the matching altar, ambo, credence tables and font (the latter likely relocated from the baptistry), along with the pews. The Stations of the Cross and Last Supper panel are likewise representative of the period and contribute to the interior's character and authenticity.
The church is the only known surviving work by Glasgow-based architect John Duncan Henderson Mackenzie. Little is known about Mackenzie's career except that he was practising with John Stewart as Stewart & Mackenzie in 1970 and that they designed All Saints' RC Church in the Barmulloch area of Glasgow (demolished in 2014).
The original external character of St Bride's Church is well preserved with only minor alterations to the entrances, with the addition of the glazed south porch. The interior has also remained largely unchanged, and overall the church retains a high level of authenticity.
Setting
The church is located on the west side of Fallside Road behind grass margins and with a car park to the south. There is a simple rectangular-plan church hall to the south of the car park. The immediate setting of the church was altered in 2011-2 with new paving, fencing and accessibility ramps to the south elevation. However, the modern character of the setting remains largely unchanged.
While not a visible landmark beyond its immediate location, the distinctive stepped profile of St Bride's Church is a prominent feature of Fallside Road. The area has been extensively developed since the 1970s by infill housing development linking Bothwell to Uddingston and the church remains a notable building within this context. This prominence within a suburban setting is typical of the building type.
The integral presbytery and adjoining Poor Clare monastery enhance the special interest of the church, even though the monastery is of a domestic suburban character which is somewhat at odds with the more innovative architecture of the church building. Beyond the monastery to the west are extensive grounds screened by hedges, with an associated cemetery to the north, and on the north side of the church is the presbytery garden. Together these form a somewhat disparate but typical ecclesiastical group with the nearby hall (beyond the car park to the south) and with St Bride's RC Primary School and Nursery (beyond the monastery grounds to the west in a building of circa 2004).
Historic interest:
Age and rarity
The older a building is, and the fewer of its type that survive, the more likely it is to be of special interest. Churches are a prolific building type in Scotland and those of the post-war period are not rare, with many surviving and remaining in use.
The second half of the 20th century saw extensive programmes of new church building by various Christian denominations to cater to new communities being established in Scotland's expanding towns and cities. Most of these churches adopted new Modernist styles to a varying degree of design success.
The Roman Catholic authorities in Glasgow and its hinterland were especially active, catering for growing Catholic populations and optimism in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Almost half of the churches in the Diocese of Motherwell were constructed after the establishment of the Diocese in 1947, but of its 19 listed churches only two date from this period, both the work of Gillespie Kidd and Coia (St Bride's, East Kilbride listed category A, ref: LB26630; and St Benedict's, Easterhouse listed category B, ref: LB32159). Built in 1971-3, St Bride's, Bothwell dates to towards the end of the main phase of post-war church construction. While not of a rare building type, its innovative design for the period and the quality of the interior are unusual.
St Bride's is also of interest for the rarity of its integral presbytery and its close connection with the monastery. While a presbytery often forms part of a parish complex and may sometimes be adjoining or linked to the church, the attempt to design the church and presbytery into a single coherent complex at St Bride's is very rare. Likewise, the construction of a parish church physically adjoining a monastery of enclosed nuns is highly unusual in Scotland. Although the monastery is not proposed for inclusion in the listing, the special provision for the cloistered nuns within the public church is a notable and rare feature, including their own separate chapel and tabernacle opening from both sides. The size of the church and the ambition of its design is reflected in the additional use as a place of worship for the monastery.
Social historical interest
All churches have a degree of social historical interest; however, they are a prolific building type that can be found in every community.
Fallside Road and the wider area between Bothwell and Uddingston has largely been developed since the 1970s and is mostly residential in character. St Bride's Church is of interest here as one of the earliest parts of this new development.
Additionally, despite the practical limits of interaction between the local people and the nuns, the link between the church and the monastery provides a further level of social interest. Monasteries of nuns and monks have been a distinctive aspect of Catholic communities and their identity in Scotland, historically a largely Presbyterian Protestant country. Visitors could speak to the enclosed nuns through a partition grill (like a confessional) to make requests for prayers, receive advice or make offerings to the community. Other local people visited the monastery to carry out building repairs and similar services for the nuns.
The grouping of the church with the monastery, hall and nearby school is indicative of the growth of the Catholic community in Bothwell in the 20th century, expanding from the smaller church and school buildings into a newly developed area of the town. While this is of social historical interest, this parish grouping and development is fairly typical.
Association with people or events of national importance
There is no association with a person or event of national importance.