oultonbmark

St Mark, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft

The Oulton Broad area of Lowestoft has an idyllic name, but much of it is 19th century terraces spread along the Lowestoft ring road, and a 1960s infill estate between this and Kirkley. Any sense of being in a village is long gone - actually, there never was a village, and until the 19th century this place was in the parish of Corton Colville. This area was built to house the workers in Sir Morton Peto's new Lowestoft docks.

St Mark's west end and bellcote. It looks better now it's been cleaned.

St Mark is slap on the ring road, which must simply be one of the most awful roads in Suffolk. It carries the A12 from London to Yarmouth through the suburbs of Lowestoft, and at this point is a single lane in each direction, squeezing through the terraces.

Here, it converges with other roads for Mutford Bridge, one of only two crossings over the Lothing between North and South Lowestoft; the road on the north side is newer, and wider, but here it was designed for 19th century horse-drawn vehicles.

No wonder that most traffic prefers to plough on regardless through central Lowestoft, although not enough to make this a pleasant place. It isn't often I get off my bike and push it, but here I did.

St Mark is sandwiched between the river crossing and a narrow railway bridge over the Lowestoft to Ipswich line. There has been some slum clearance around it, especially across the road, but it is all still pretty grim.

The church was built by local architects Roberts, Green and Richards in 1884, with none of the grandeur and finesse which characterise that decade. It consists of a simple nave and chacel, with a little bellcote at the west end. The whole thing is made out of Woolpit brick, so you can imagine the colour it has gone in the last century.

The building has a clerestory of lancets, and a red brick arcade of lancets below it, as though designed to have aisles added at a later date. This never happened, but a transept-like organ chamber and vestry were built on, and in 1990 the substantial parish rooms to the north of the building were opened and dedicated by the Bishop of Norwich. So this is clearly a busy parish, busy enough to have built a chapel of ease at St Luke, and on the day I came an art exhibition was on in the parish hall. The church, however, was locked. Big glass doors enabled me to see much of the inside.

Regular users of this site will know that I am a fan of Victorian churches, but it is honestly rather hard to pretend that this is an attractive building. Even in a better setting, it is nothing but functional; and yet it has survived, and thrives, when so many of Lowestoft's 19th century churches have not.

St Mark, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft, is to be found on Bridge Road, between Mutford Bridge and the railway bridge, in west Lowestoft. I found it locked without a keyholder.