Winning back those who had been drawn to Nonconformity or had succumbed to a godless existence was a high priority for the Established Church. However, it was recognised that for the new churches to have maximum impact, in addition to the appointment of an energetic, dynamic minister, the hoped-for congregations needed to be housed comfortably. Specifically, architects needed to provide buildings which addressed the challenges of hearing and seeing, as discussed in Chapter 7, offered easy entrance and exit, were warm in winter and well-lit for evening services. This chapter will examine the architects’ responses to these demands.

An explicit example of what was deemed desirable to satisfy a fashionable congregation was St Peter, Manchester (1788–94), designed by James Wyatt and situated in the best part of town (Fig. 5.1; see Fig. 3.2). The Manchester Guide of 1804 recorded that it was ‘a model of elegance and taste. The subscribers had the good sense to reject old rules which had not utility for their object, and dared to introduce comfort, convenience and propriety, into the temple of God.’ Function even dictated construction and furnishings to provide an optimum acoustic: ‘the floor is boarded, and covered with matting, so that all noise, apparent hurry and confusion, too visible, on the entrance of some congregations, is avoided; and the highly esteemed minister is heard equally well by every individual within the walls.’ In varying degrees, it was typical of the period's new churches and the themes contained in the quotation will reoccur throughout this chapter.

The auditory church

That late-Georgian services were auditory rather than sacramental – a theme explored in Chapter 7 is unquestioned, and hearing the minister's words was absolutely essential everywhere. This might be especially true for a congregation of poor country folk; Mark Smith makes the interesting observation that in Oldham and Saddleworth the illiterate were often thought incapable of following the words of the service as set out in the prayer book and thus ‘the sermon alone [was] regarded as the great object of attendance at church’. And emphasising the nature of worship, the 1830 guide to Warwickshire, which enumerates the seats in each Birmingham church, notes the town's Christ Church would ‘accommodate upwards of one thousand five hundred hearers’ [author's italics] (see Fig. 10.15).

Perhaps nothing better illustrates this period's pragmatic approach to ecclesiastical design than its attitude to acoustics.