Friday Photo: Our Lady Help of Christians

This weeks Friday photo is Our Lady Help of Christians in Tile Cross. Sadly the Architect Richard Gilbert Scott passed away earlier this month, so I thought it would be fitting to post this picture of one of the two Roman Catholic churches he designed in Birmingham (the other being St Thomas More in Sheldon). The building is Grade II* (upgraded in 2016) and was built 1966-1967. It’s a reinforced concrete frame in-filled with brickwork, with an innovative sculptural design that sees the ribbed roof curving up into a central tower. You can’t really detect from the outside how wonderfully colourful the stained glass by John Chrestien is, it fills in the spaces left between the concrete frame letting in a soft quality of light. The church is part of a group of Roman Catholic churches that were built in Birmingham at this time, reflecting the historical community of Irish immigrants which grew in the area in the post-war period.