St George's Church, Portobello, is a former

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

in the

City of Sheffield The City of Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Sheffield, the town of Stocksbridge and larger village of Chapeltown and part of the Peak ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is now part of the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

and is a lecture theatre and student housing. St George's is the first of three

Commissioners' church A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The 1818 Act supplied ...

es to have been built in Sheffield under the Church Building Act 1818. The other two are St Mary's Church, Bramall Lane and St Philip's Church, Netherthorpe (demolished 1951). St George's is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

building designed by the architects Woodhead and Hurst in a

Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...

style. It was built at a cost of £15,181 (), the whole cost being met by the Church Building Commission. The building is long and wide, and consisted of a flat-ceilinged

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

with six

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

, a single-bay

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

, and a -high tower. Galleries extended the length of the north and south walls, and there was a two-tiered gallery on the west wall. In total the church could seat 380 people. The foundation stone was laid on 19 July 1821, and the church was consecrated by Archbishop Vernon Harcourt on 29 June 1825. St George UoS interior 1 2010

The church was declared redundant and closed in 1981. It stood unused for a number of years until the

acquired it and in 1994 had it converted into a lecture theatre and student accommodation. Prior to this it had been the last of the Commissioners' churches in Sheffield to retain its original form. It is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. In 2010 a nest-box was placed on the church rooftop, which is now home to a breeding pair of

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (Bird of prey, raptor) in the family (biology), family Falco ...

s that can be seen via live stream webcam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portobello, Saint George's Church 19th-century Church of England church buildings Churches completed in 1825

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

Church of England church buildings in South Yorkshire Commissioners' church buildings Former Church of England church buildings Gothic Revival church buildings in England Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Grade II listed churches in South Yorkshire Halls of residence in the United Kingdom Sheffield University buildings and structures

See also

References