Wolverhampton's Locally Listed Buildings

St. Thomas of Canterbury R.C. Church

Haywood Drive



Local listing:  1965, Jennings, Homer and Lynch.  Low, flat roofed, with tall west 'tower' comprising two pylons linked by common roof.  Concrete and brick.  Auxiliary ranges with roof lights.  Decorative mild steel railing to Haywood Drive.  Local landmark.

Comment:  Very close to one of Tettenhall's oldest and most important timber framed buildings, this church makes no concession to it at all.  Good brickwork contrasts with a concrete slab which we might now see as a reference to concrete brutalism.  The slender walls of the tower and the panels within it might also been seen as harking back to the 1950s Festival of Britain style.  But put it all together, and take account of the geometry of the elements, and you have one of the better buildings of the period.