St Mary Magdalen's Church, Brighton

St Mary Magdalen’s Church stands in Brighton’s Montpelier area, near the border with Hove. Built in the 13th-century Gothic style by Gilbert Blount, it serves as one of six Roman Catholic churches in Brighton and eleven across Brighton and Hove. The church and its adjacent presbytery and parish hall are each Grade II listed for their architectural importance. Upper North Street, where it sits, developed in the 1830s as a street of high-quality housing connecting the two towns. The church’s red-brick exterior uses blue and black brick for decoration, with a stone spire rising above the tower. Inside, lancet windows with ornate tracery and intricate stone carvings frame the space. The church was commissioned to serve the growing West Brighton area after a mission district was established in 1861. Blount, a former engineer who worked with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, designed the church with Early English and Decorated Gothic features. The sanctuary and chapels were completed first in 1861, followed by the nave in 1862 and its extension in 1864, when the spire was added. The church opened officially on 16 August 1864. Later changes included replacing the organ in 1962 and installing statues of Saints Joseph and George above the entrance. Between 2008 and 2010, further work restored the sanctuary and lighting to a pre-Vatican II appearance. Visitors enter through a porch in the tower, where the main door is set beneath ornate stone carvings. The interior includes a five-bay nave with aisles, a chancel, vestry and the tower structure. The church’s Grade II listing recognises its place among 1,124 such buildings in Brighton and Hove. Nearby stands the former St Mary Magdalen’s School, built around 1865 and now a church hall, also Grade II listed. To the east, the presbytery dates from about 1890 and shares the same red-brick style with stone dressings. The area around the church remains a quiet part of Montpelier, with well-preserved Victorian streets nearby.