ARCHITECTURE
St Joseph’s Gateshead Paul Waddington on a splendid Victorian church in the North East, designed by Archibald Matthias Dunn
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t the time of the restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850, there was no provision for Masses to be offered in Gateshead. Catholics would have to cross the River Tyne to attend Mass in Newcastle. However, the newly appointed Bishop of Hexham (as the Diocese was then styled), the Rt Rev. William Hogarth, lost little time in putting this right. In 1852, he sent Father Betham to set up a parish in Gateshead. Mass was first offered in a temporary chapel on the top floor of a warehouse, and later in the Assembly Rooms of the Queen’s Hotel. It is estimated that there were 3,000 Catholics in and around Gateshead at the time, half of them newly arrived immigrants from Ireland who had come to seek work in the new industries of the area. With such numbers, a church of considerable size was clearly necessary. In the year 1858, Bishop Hogarth laid the foundation stone for a church which was originally going to be dedicated to Our Lady and St Wilfrid. The architect was Archibald Matthias Dunn, and his brief was to design a church for a congregation of 1,000. The bishop returned the following year to open the new church, which, due to a change of mind, was now dedicated to St Joseph. It had been built for the remarkably low cost of £3,000. Dunn also designed a school and a three-storey presbytery, which were built on the same site and both opened in 1864. Archibald Dunn was the son of a mining engineer, and was educated at Ushaw College and Stonyhurst. He served his architectural apprenticeship in Bristol with Charles Francis Hansom (younger brother of the more famous Joseph Aloysius Hansom). Besides St Joseph’s in Gateshead, Archibald Dunn designed several other churches in the diocese, including Our Lady and St Wilfrid in Blyth and St Dominic’s Priory in Newcastle. Later he formed a partnership with Edward Hansom, the son of Charles Francis Hansom, and
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The exterior St Joseph's: originally there was to have been an impressive tower with a spire reaching to a height of 200 feet, but this was never built
together they designed a number of Catholic churches. These include the Church of Our Lady and the English Martyrs in Cambridge, the Church of St Michael in Newcastle, the Church of Our Lady and St Joseph in Carlisle and the Church of St Joseph in Hartlepool. Perhaps the partnership, which was joined in 1887 by Archibald’s son, also called Archibald, is better known for rebuilding and enlarging Augustus Welby Pugin’s chapel at Ushaw College, and adding the tower and spire to St Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle.
the spire was never built, as it would have greatly enhanced the building. Internally, the church has a light and airy feel. The six bays of the lofty nave have high pointed arches supported on octagonal columns, which are sufficiently slender to allow good sight lines. Above the arcading are clerestory
Prominent position St Joseph’s Church in Gateshead occupies a prominent position on a street corner in central Gateshead. It is built of stone with a slate roof, and is in the Decorated Gothic style. Cruciform in plan, and traditional in orientation (altar at the eastern end), it is a substantial building with lofty nave, apsidal chancel and side isles. Originally there was to have been an impressive tower with a spire reaching to a height of 200 feet, but this was never built. This feature seems to have been abandoned before building started, its place at the northwest corner of the church being taken by a baptistery with pyramidal roof. It is a great pity that
Original drawings for St Joseph’s: the architect was Archibald Matthias Dunn, and his brief was to design a church for a congregation of 1,000
SPRING 2021
