St Peter's Church is a former

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church in the Bohemia area of the town and

seaside resort A seaside resort is a city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...

of , part of the

Borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

, England. Founded in 1883 in response to the rapid residential growth of this part of St Leonards-on-Sea, the "outstanding late

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

church" was completed and opened in 1885. Architect James Brooks was towards the end of his career but still produced a successful, powerful Gothic Revival design, which was built by prolific local firm

John Howell & Son John Howell & Son, known as John Howell, was the leading building and engineering company in Hastings, Sussex in the 1860s. Its founder, John Howell Senior (ca.1825−1893) engineered churches and other public buildings in the area to the design ...

—builders of several other churches in the area. After the closure and demolition of the nearby St Paul's Church and the merging of the parishes, the legal names of the parish and church were changed to St Peter's and St Paul's Church. The church came to national attention in 2009 when its long-serving vicar was arrested for organising

sham marriage A sham marriage or fake marriage is a marriage of convenience entered into without intending to create a real marital relationship. This is usually for the purpose of gaining an advantage from the marriage. Definitions of sham marriage vary b ...

s. The church was declared

redundant Redundancy or redundant may refer to: Language * Redundancy (linguistics), information that is expressed more than once Engineering and computer science * Data redundancy, database systems which have a field that is repeated in two or more table ...

by the

Diocese of Chichester The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was founded in 681 as the ancient Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey, until the see was translated to Chichester in 1075. The cathe ...

in 2011; since 2010 it has been home to Sonrise Church—an independent Evangelical congregation.

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

has listed it at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.

History

St Leonards-on-Sea experienced continuous rapid growth after it was founded in 1828 by London-based builder and speculator

James Burton James Edward Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana, United States) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also ...

. The seaside resort, immediately west of the ancient port of Hastings, had a esplanade with high-class buildings facing the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

, but also extended a long way inland by the late 19th century as housing was built up the wooded valley which formed part of the land Burton bought in 1828. Three Anglican churches were built in the resort's early years— St Leonard's (1831), St Mary Magdalene's Church (1858) and Christ Church (1860)—and a fourth, dedicated to St Paul, was built on the newly developed Church Road in 1868. Further growth around the Bohemia Road, leading to the Silverhill suburb of Hastings, occurred over the next 20 years. Blanche E. Elliott, a worshipper at St Paul's Church, donated £14,300 to allow another church to be founded to serve that area. Its

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was laid by Lady Brassey on 4 August 1883. The Hastings-based firm of

were responsible for building the church to the design of James Brooks, "one of the most respected Victorian church architects", whose reputation was forged by his work on well-designed, inexpensive churches in central London in the 1860s. The original design featured a tower and spire, which were never built. The church was ready in 1885, and opened for worship in that year. The eventual cost exceeded £11,000. It was allocated a parish immediately, carved out of St Paul's Church's parish. The two churches served the local area together for the next 80 years, but in 1964 St Paul's was closed and demolished (this has been described as "the most grievous loss among the Victorian churches of Hastings"). The parishes were combined thereafter under the name ''St Peter and St Paul''. (There is an unrelated church named St Peter and St Paul's Church, opened in 1969, in the Silverhill Park suburb of Hastings.) In July 2009, the vicar—who had served the church for 20 years—was arrested at his rectory near the church on suspicion of conducting about 180

s which allowed

illegal immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of that country's immigration laws, or the continuous residence in a country without the legal right to do so. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upward, wi ...

to stay in the country. The trial of Rev. Alex Brown and two other defendants began in June 2010 and concluded in September 2010 with the three men being jailed for four years each. About 360 marriages at the church between 2005 and 2009 were eventually identified as sham.

Architecture

James Brooks made his reputation designing "large and economical churches" in inner London, which combined simple, well-proportioned

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

designs (usually in brick) with interesting architectural touches. These features are also in evidence at St Peter's Church, even though he was working with a less restricted budget than he often had to in London. It is an Early English Gothic Revival-style red-brick building with

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s which feature extensive

plate tracery Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...

. The walls have some

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

as well, and the roof is laid with slates and red clay tiles. The plan consists of a two-

bay 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, ci ...

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

and

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 ...

separated by a chancel arch which almost reaches the church roof—making the interior a unified composition—a

clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...

and aisles on each side of the nave, porches on the south and west sides, a side chapel,

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

with an organ-chamber above (reached by a stair-turret) and a

baptistery In Church architecture, Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek language, Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned ...

with a polygonal

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

. The clerestory has tall paired lancet windows and is very tall, making the aisles and their pointed-arched arcades low. There are similar two-light windows to the vestry and its organ-chamber, which is

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d. The baptistery at the northwest end has a vaulted conical roof with moulding in a

dog-tooth In architecture, a dog-tooth or dogtooth pattern is an ornament found in the mouldings of medieval work of the commencement of the 12th century, which is thought to have been introduced by the Crusaders. The earliest example is found in the ha ...

pattern. Both the west and the east windows are composed of large groups of lancets (five and four respectively) with

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

s and

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin , lip), drip mould or dripstone is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a '' pediment''. This moulding can be ...

s. The west window, set above one of the entrance porches, also has

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

s and

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

lights. The interior walls are of uncovered red brick, except in the chancel where much use is made of

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral and a soft Rock (geology), rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Archaeologists, geologists, and the stone industry have different definitions for the word ''alabaster''. In archaeology, the term ''alab ...

as a facing material. The

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

of the five-bay arcades separating the nave from the aisles are also of brick with stone

capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

. Their shape—a continuation of the round piers combined with a cut-off pyramid shape—were described by

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

as "a true innovation". Fittings include an alabaster

lectern A lectern is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of ...

and

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

, considered by English Heritage to be "the most impressive feature". Together with the chancel screen, these fixtures are of pink and grey alabaster and have prominent dog-tooth mouldings and

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

s. There is also a tall

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

depicting the crucifixion of a fully clothed Christ. It was created to Brooks's designs by

Harry Hems Harry Hems (12 June 1842 – 5 January 1916) was an English architectural and ecclesiastical sculptor who was particularly inspired by Gothic architecture and a practitioner of Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival. He founded and ran a la ...

in 1895. Three

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, typically made of stone, located on the liturgical south side of the altar—often within the chancel—intended for use by the officiating priest, deacon, an ...

and an attached

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

are situated under a hood mould on the chancel wall. Northwest of the church are the former church hall and vicarage (now in secular use as the Streatfeild House Day Care Centre). These may have been designed at the same time as the church by Brooks. The hall has some Gothic Revival touches, principally the pointed-arched windows. The vicarage is also in the Early English Gothic Revival style and has irregular fenestration and tile-hanging.

The church today

St Peter's Church was listed at Grade II* by

on 14 September 1976. This defines it as a "particularly important" building of "more than special interest". As of February 2001, it was one of 13 Grade II* listed buildings, and 535 listed buildings of all grades, in the borough of Hastings. Two other Anglican churches in St Leonards-on-Sea, St John the Evangelist's and Christ Church, are also listed at Grade II*; other churches with listed status in the town are St Leonard's Anglican church, St Leonard's Baptist Church, St Mary Magdalene's Church (now

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

), the

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs and the former St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church further up London Road. Each of these have the lower Grade II status. The parish covered a large area of the north of St Leonards-on-Sea. The boundaries are

St Leonards Warrior Square railway station St Leonards Warrior Square railway station is on the Hastings line in the south of England and is one of four stations that serve Hastings, East Sussex. It is down the line from London Charing Cross. The station is operated by Southeastern b ...

, Warrior Gardens, Edward Road, Magdalen Road, the railway line between St Leonards Warrior Square and

railway stations, Linton Road, Lower Park Road, part of Alexandra Park, Newgate Road, Tower Road, St Peter's Road and Woodland Vale Road. The Diocese of Chichester declared the church

with effect from 1 November 2011. Since the previous year, it had been used by Sonrise Church—an

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

congregation—and it was registered for marriages on their behalf in February 2016. Sonrise Church was originally associated with the Christian Outreach Centre movement and was founded on a small scale in St Leonards-on-Sea in September 2000. Continuous growth led to the use of larger buildings in the borough of Hastings, including the former St Mary-in-the-Castle Church, until the church was able to move into St Peter's Church in 2010. Although now an independent Evangelical church
Sonrise Church
belongs to the

Evangelical Alliance The Evangelical Alliance (EA) is a UK organisation of evangelical individuals, organisations, and churches, which is itself a member of the World Evangelical Alliance. Founded in 1846, the Evangelical Alliance aims to promote evangelical Chr ...

Notes

References

Bibliography