Leicester: St Saviour
Diocese of Leicester
Closed Church, 619016
This church is on the Heritage at Risk Register (verified 2025-11-06)
View more information about this church on the Heritage at Risk website
Overview
Grid reference: SK 603 48
The church was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and built in 1875-7, shortly before his death. The church was built as part of a larger foundation including a vicarage (1876), and school (1880 by Stockdale Harrison).
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Cruciform, with 5-bay aisled nave, transepts, SW tower with broach spire and set-back buttresses, and apsed chancel with symmetrical flanking chapels, that to N converted to a vestry and organ chamber. Clerestory.
Dimensions:
Nave 30m (100ft) x 9m (30 ft), chancel 12.5m (40 ft) long.
Footprint of Church buildings: 820 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
Archaeology
The potential for below ground archaeology would appear to be low. The centre of Leicester lies roughly 2 Km to SW and was the site of a major Roman tribal centre and mediaeval county town. There are hence hundreds of SMR entries within 2km of this church, but this does not necessarily reflect the archaeological potential of the site. The immediate area seems to have been developed in the 1870s, around the time the church was built. It is likely that prior to that the area was used for agriculture. Although there is a possibility that there was prehistoric or mediaeval activity in the vicinity other than agriculture, there is no evidence for this.
History
Scott was of course one of the leading Gothic Revival architects, and certainly one of the most famous. St Saviour’s is the last and largest of the churches he designed in Leicester, the others being the churches of St John, St Andrew and St Matthew. His influence on Leicester extends even beyond these buildings, for example nearby St Peter’s was designed by his former protégé G E Street. The site and the considerable construction costs for the church and school (£20,000) were a gift of the Revd F G Burnaby, the parish was created in 1878. The church school was built shortly after Scott’s death to designs by Stockdale Harrison, a Leicester architect. It is a good building of its type and date in its own right. It is now leased by the Council and used as a neighbourhood centre.
Exterior Description
The architectural style chosen is basically Transitional, with pointed lancets throughout, but with detailing and a complexity of design and handling which transcends the often derogative “lancet gothic” label, as one might expect from this architect. Scott has brought all the ancillaries (vestries etc) within the footprint of what would be a perfectly symmetrical building but for the south-west tower, allowing nothing to spoil his vision; this has, however, had the side effect of leaving the church with no facilities, including no running water to this day.
Considerable vertical emphasis to an already tall church is added by the south-west tower with its broach spire of stone, which has 2-light lucarnes at the base and narrow openings higher up. The tower is of three stages and has angle buttresses with weatherings to each string-course. The lower stages are pierced by single lancets, the belfry stage has twin lancet openings. There is a large doorway in the south face, pointed with two orders of colonettes with Early English capitals, with a wrought-iron canopy above with pendant lamp.
The west gable has a wheel window, below which are five lancets set in intersecting blank arcading enriched with chevron. Below this again is a west door with a moulded pointed arch of three orders carried on colonettes with waterleaf capitals, all under a shallowly projecting gable. The entrance is flanked by circular windows with cinquefoils. The doors have good scrolled ironwork.
The aisles have a single lancet in each bay (including the exposed west face of the north aisle) defined by buttresses of one weathering, the clerestory has triple lancets between strip pilasters, all these with continuous hoodmoulds and cill bands. There is a brick corbel table under the eaves and a stepped cornice along the gable, a pattern repeated everywhere.
The single bay projecting transepts have two single lancets with shafted jambs and plain stopped hoodmoulds, separated by a pilaster which continues up through a clerestory of two twin lancets with shafted jambs and chevron around the arches, hoodmoulds as above. There is a wheel window in the gables above a corbel table, as above. The side walls have a triple lancet as in the nave clerestory, the outer lancet blind.
The chancel is flanked by chapels with single windows in each face in the transepts. The projecting chancel apse has twin lancets with the same treatment again, but also a clerestory band pierced by a round cinquefoil window in an inset band with flanking colonettes, a most original and effective composition.
Building Materials
Brick
Red brick exterior and brick faced interior. Circular brick pillars
Slate
Roof
Interior
Interior Description
Moving inside, there is an enormous sense of space under the high and excellent roof, which is a complex arch-braced construction with tie-beams and collars taken down to carved stone corbels alternating with intermediate scissor-braces in the nave, but with a brick rib-vault over the crossing and sanctuary apse, and an oak vault over the chancel. These roofs are some of the church’s best features.
Brick is exposed everywhere, the arcade columns also of brick (with the exception of those at the crossing, which are of polished Shap granite), all with carved white stone waterleaf capitals. The nave, crossing, chancel and sanctuary arches are all pointed and moulded with a continuous hoodmould; the plain corbels to the hood-moulds of the crossing and chancel arches and the sanctuary windows are also picked out in white stone.
The floors are of red tiles, sinking and warping practically everywhere, with some real troughs and slopes in places.
The north “chapel” is the organ chamber, the pipes exposed to the chancel, and a small vestry. The south chapel has been enclosed in the 1920s with neo-Georgian wood panelling with round-headed arches and turned into a War Memorial chapel.
There are three steps to the chancel and one more to the sanctuary, which is paved with encaustic tiles by Godwin set in Geometric patterns. The sanctuary has an oak sedilia and stone piscina, Early English in style, and oak panelling around the sanctuary walls with carved cornice, dramatically lit by all the windows.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
20th Century Oak table with faceted legs fitting beneath reredos, 1927.
Pulpit
Large, round pulpit of various stones including Derbyshire marble and Caen stone, with colonettes and arcading around the bowl, moulded cornice, brick base. Previous PM recorded it cracking and warping. Now basically rubble, but could perhaps be rebuilt.
Lectern
Brass eagle, made by Skidmore of Coventry, and also wooden eagle
Font (component)
Octagonal font. Painted white but of red Mansfield stone.
Pew (object)
Nave fully pewed with oak benches with panelled backs and simple moulded ends, some labelled “churchwardens” etc.
Altar Rail
Oak rail, wrought iron supports.
Organ (component)
Now removed. [3-manual pipe organ by S Taylor of Leicester.]
Plaque (object)
Two large 19th-century brass plaques: • In memory of Revd Hutton, first vicar, friends donated the west windows in 1885. • In memory of the benefactor Revd Burnaby and his wife Anna Maria, friends donated the east windows in 1886. Two early 20th-century brass plaques in memory of parishioners, Edwin Meadows and Alexander Whitlam Grant. Many small brass plaques on the organ case in memory of chorists, organists etc.
Stained Glass (window)
19th Century to 20th Century An extensive suite of glass, in all the west façade windows and almost all the ground floor windows. Despite areas of damage the quality and quantity of the glass remains impressive.
Portable Furnishings and Artworks
Registers date from 1877, kept at the County Record Office.
Churchyard
Grid reference: SK 603 48
Burial and War Grave Information
The church/building is consecrated.
The churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Sources
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