The cathedral in the loggia

I am using an architectural term loosely. Not quite a loggia, more like an inner courtyard, almost a peristyle. Anyway. The small Catholic cathedral of Brentwood, a suburban commuter city about 20 miles outside London.

Unusual, both outside and in. At first I thought it was the country house of a noble family. It has the classical feel of many of them, although the Italianate style, clearly inspired by Brunelleschi's Hospital of the Innocents, links it to Renaissance Catholicism. Wren's English Baroque is also in the genes.

Inside you have the bishop's throne (his cathedra!), the central altar, and the pulpit/lectern on a single axis. All three raised off the floor. Not unusual in recent Catholic architecture, but the place --from pictures-- feels both domestic and intimate, public, sacred and elegant. Note the chandeliers and the central lantern in the ceiling.

Even though this building was designed from the ground up in 1991 for its purpose as a church, replacing a brutalist cube, it evokes the primitive Christian idea of churches developing out of the houses of the wealthy, houses big enough to regularly host house churches. More pix and info at the site of the architect, Quinlan Terry.