Trinity Church, Sutton is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

United Reformed The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2024 it had approximately 44,000 members in around 1,250 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers. The URC is a Trinitarian church whose theolog ...

and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

church in the centre of

Sutton, London Sutton is a town in the London Borough of Sutton in South London, England. It is the administrative headquarters of the Outer London borough, on the lower slopes of the North Downs. It is south-southwest of Charing Cross, one of the fourteen ...

. It was built in 1907 in the Gothic style with

Kentish ragstone Kentish ragstone is a hard grey limestone in Kent, England, drawn from the geological sequence known as the Hythe Beds of the Lower Greensand. For millennia it has been quarried for use both locally and further afield. Geology Ragstone occurs ...

with

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...

dressings. It was designed by architects Gordon and Gunton.

Location

Trinity Church is situated in Cheam Road, Sutton. Its size and position make it a landmark in the town.

History

The church was officially opened on 2 October 1907 as Trinity Wesleyan Church, and replaced a former building nearby. It was renamed Trinity Methodist Church following the

Methodist Union Methodist Union was the joining together of several of the larger British Methodist denominations. These were the Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, and the United Methodists. The process involved many years of negotiation and discu ...

in 1932. In 1972 the Congregational and

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

es united, and the

Congregational Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christianity, Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice Congregationalist polity, congregational ...

and

congregations in Sutton also united, with Trinity becoming a joint

and Methodist church.

Architectural features

The church comprises a complex of buildings. Its most striking feature is its very unusual "crown and lantern" spire, a design shared with two cathedrals —

St Giles' Cathedral St Giles' Cathedral (), or the High Kirk of Edinburgh, is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh. The current building was begun in the 14th century and extended until the early 16th century; ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Newcastle Cathedral Newcastle Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Nicholas, is a Church of England cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Newcastle (England), Bishop of Newcastle and is the mother church ...

. The building, now Grade II listed, is in the Gothic style and was designed by architects, Gordon and Gunton. The exterior is in

with

dressings. The roofs have plain tiles. There is a hall at the north end on an east-west axis linked to the church at the south end on a north-south axis. The church comprises a

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 ...

, a

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

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 ' ...

at the north end,

transepts A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") churches, in particular within the Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architectu ...

, side aisles and a south-west tower. The windows in the nave include single-light cusped-headed ones with quatrefoils and side-aisle ones of two lights and a transept window three lights wide and three lights deep. Projecting from the north-west end of the nave is a wing with a semi-octagonal, pointed roof. Each facet of the west end is flanked by a

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

and in each facet are two tiers of fenestration, each window of two lights. Windows to the apse of the main church are taller, also of two lights.British Listed Buildings
/ref> The south-west tower of the church is the most striking architectural feature of the building and makes the building a landmark - it is a tall square tower with a pierced two-light opening in earth side, a pierced

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

, angle buttresses with pinnacles and a short spire supported by carved buttresses with a

ball flower A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for simp ...

ornament. A flight of steps leads up to entrance at the base of tower. The church hall at its west end is of one-storey; its structure is polygonal against a west gable wall. Each bay of the north and south fronts of the western part are flanked by buttresses; four-light windows are set within a pointed arch with battered reveals. There is

stringcourse A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the f ...

and parapet and a

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

on the ridge. At the east end there is a two storey wing with a projecting bay with spire and gables to each side at the west end; to the east of this, there are two bays with three-light windows on the ground floor and an eight-light window above.

References

External links

{{LB Sutton Sutton, London Churches in the London Borough of Sutton Methodist churches in London Churches completed in 1907 20th-century church buildings in England 20th-century Methodist church buildings

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Sutton