685/3/160 ST ALPHEGE ROAD 27-OCT-76 CHARLTON Church of St Peter and St Paul II* Church. 1891-3 by James Brooks in French Gothic style. Built of Kentish ragstone with ashlar dressings and slate roof with octagonal lead and shingled fleche. Cruciform shape. Five bay nave with aisles, two bay chancel, transepts, south porch and south east vestry. Windows are lancets in tiers at the end of each arm. West front has gable with cross-shaped saddlestone, three tiers of triple lancets and arched doorcase with colonnettes and zigzag moulding. Nave has clerestorey lancets and paired lancets to aisles North aisle has further arched doorcase. South porch has gable with cross-shaped saddlestone, quatrefoil with crossed keys and arched doorcase. Quatrefoil openings to east and west walls. Transepts have rose windows and 3 tiers of triple lancets. Two bay chancel has cross-shaped saddlestone, oculus and three tiers of triple windows with stilted arches, the two lower tiers filled in within existing openings and flanked by bettresses. Large south east one storey vestry with lancets, some paired with mullions, chimney to south and staircase and arched doorcase to west. INTERIOR: arcade with octagonal piers carried up to form giant blank arches enclosing high clerestory lancets. Wooden boarded roof with crownposts. Piscinas to chancel and north chapel. The original high altar survives with marble top and carved base with quatrefoil mouldings, also the carved wooden pulpit and octagonal stone and granite font. Apart from the east end, stained glass survives mainly at a lower level with leaded light windows above. Seven early C19 wall tablets survive in the south transept and two early C18 wall tablets to the Monins family from the earlier church on the site. A coat of arms with the motto RESURGAM in the north aisle probably came from the earlier church and there is also an C18 stone font from another church. The choir stall came from the bombed Church of St Barnabas. The east windows were lost because of bomb damage and the east windows to both chancel and north chapel are post-war replacements by Kenneth Lindley. 1950s reredos with columns and ogee head, also marble communion railings, steps and floor. [BOE North East and East Kent pp 288-289. Dixon and Muthesius "Victorian Architecture" p 254.] Listing NGR: TR3140142310