St Wilfrid's Church, Brighton

Elm Grove, a steep road running from central Brighton eastwards to Brighton Racecourse on Race Hill, was laid out in the 1850s. Residential development occurred in two stages: during the 1860s, and in the 1880s. Tightly packed terraced housing was provided on the northern and southern slopes of the hill between the 1860s and 1900, and the area became very densely populated. At first, Anglican services were held in a series of rented rooms and halls in the area. The congregation outgrew these, and a temporary church built of tin was constructed on the site of the present church, at the junction of Elm Grove and Whippingham Road. This was inaugurated on 25 August 1901. A year earlier, the…

Goodhart-Rendel was a former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He also designed a large office building (Princes House) in the centre of Brighton and various similar buildings in London. For his work on St Wilfrid's Church, he combined his interest in 19th-century church architecture with modern structural ideas and materials in a way consistent with the architectural concept of Eclecticism. Its style has been described as tending towards Rationalism in its "expression of structure"; "remarkable" in its ingenuity, as it "does not imitate any style of the past, nor ... the modern style of 1930"; and "highly original". John Betjeman called it "about the best 1930s church…

St Wilfrid's Church was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 14 January 1981. A residential development called "St Wilfrid's Flats" now occupies the interior of the former church.