Francis Xavier Velarde (1897–1961) was an English architect who practised in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. He trained at the Liverpool School of Architecture where he later taught. His works are mainly in Merseyside and Northwest England, with the major part of his body of output being Catholic churches.[1] Although Pollard and Pevsner state that he "worked exclusively for the Roman Catholic Church",[2] he did design one Anglican church, St Gabriel's Church, Blackburn. Velarde also designed Roman Catholic schools. This list includes some of his major works.
This was Velarde's first church; it is built in brick with a green pantiled roof. The church has a tall northeast tower with a copper cupola. The internal furnishings are also by Velarde.[4][5]
St Gabriel's is considered to be a milestone in the development of the Modern Movement in church architecture. It is built in brick, with a truncated tower. The former flat roofs have been replaced by pitched roofs because of leaking. The doors have Art Deco decoration in painted metal. Unusually for Velarde, it is an Anglican church.[6][7]
Inspired by the Continental churches of Dominikus Böhm, St Monica's is constructed in fawn-coloured brick with a green pantile roof. It has a wide west tower incorporating a narthex, with tall thin sculptures of angels on the west front by H. Tyson Smith. The church was upgraded to Grade I listed status in 2017.[8][9][10]
With a design modern for its time, the school is built in brick with much glass, including a glazed semicircular staircase, and long bands of windows. The windows have stone mullions carved with saints.[11]
The church is in brick and has a southwest tower with a pyramidal copper roof. The windows are lancets with flutedmullions. The church forms a three-sided courtyard with the presbytery and hall.[12]
Plans for the church were prepared before the Second World War. It has an almost detached southeast tower, with a sculpture of the Pietà, square bell openings, and a copper roof. The mullions in the windows consist of concrete figures, and the rose window contains a sculpture of Christ.[13][14]
This is a long, low, plain church in brick with side buttresses separating groups of round-headed windows. The windows have mullions in the form of angels with doves.[15][16]
Velarde added a Lady chapel to a church built in 1869 and designed by Joseph Hansom. The chapel consists of a circular room with a conical roof, joined to the south aisle of the church.[17][18]
St Cuthbert's is a small church in brick. It has a detached tower (not part of the original design) with a pyramidal spire, and loudspeakers visible in its belfry. At the west end is an apse, and at the other end is a double-gablednarthex topped by a cross commemorating the church's Golden Jubilee.[19][20][21]
The design was influenced by early Spanish churches. It is constructed in brick with stone dressings and tiled roofs. The church has a single aisle, and a detached northeast tower. There is sculpture by H. Tyson Smith inside and outside the church.[25][26]
Combining Romanesque and modern motifs, the church is built in brick and stone, and has tiled roofs. It has a southwest tower with five round-headed bell openings on each side and a copper-covered pyramidal roof. There is also a baptistry with a circular lantern, and a Lady chapel with an apsidal end. The church is no longer in active use.[28][29]
The church was completed and opened in 1962, after Velarde's death, but the foundation stone was laid in July 1960. It replaced a church dedicated to St Francis Xavier which had been destroyed by World War II bombing. In 2005, the two parishes in the town were combined and a new church was built on the site of the 1950s building which served the other parish; Velarde's church was no longer required, and it closed in December 2005 and was demolished for residential development.[31][32]
^The Church at Mouldsworth, Parish of Saint Thomas Becket & Saint Cuthbert by the Forest, archived from the original on 28 July 2013, retrieved 6 August 2012
^"Church History". Catholic Parish of Our Lady and St Vincent, Potters Bar. 2019. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2020. (This reference misspells the architect's name as Felix Velerde.)
Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN978-0-300-12667-9
Newman, John; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Shropshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN0-300-12083-4
Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN0-300-10910-5
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