All Saints Church

About All Saints Church

All Saints was built between 1786 and 1796 to designs by David Stephenson, replacing the medieval church of All Hallows, and is listed Grade I. Historic England calls its plan a rare oval design; the Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust goes further and describes it as the only elliptical church building in England. Inside, the galleried interior is almost entirely mahogany, with panelled pews meeting fluted Doric columns that carry the balcony, under a moulded plaster ceiling heavy with leaf and flower ornament. Outside, a Greek Doric portico is reached up three flights of steps, and the baroque tower and spire are a fixture of the city skyline. A marble plaque in the tower vestibule commemorates Stephenson himself, who died in 1819.

One warning worth having in advance: the medieval font that guidebooks send people here to see is not here. The original was rescued from the medieval church and is now at Kirkharle in Northumberland, and what stands in the vestibule is a replica. The great Roger Thornton brass, once over his tomb in the medieval church, is in Newcastle Cathedral. The building closed in 1959 and spent decades in other uses and then empty, joining the Heritage at Risk Register in 2012 before a Historic England grant of £135,000 in 2019. It is a working church again: All Saints Presbyterian Church took a 150-year lease from the city council in 2019 and worship resumed that October. Self-guided tours run every Thursday from 1pm to 4pm with no booking needed, and although the portico is up steps there is a separate step-free entrance.

Featured in These Guides

Blog posts and guides that feature All Saints Church.

Lost Buildings of Newcastle: What Stood Where

A Georgian shopping arcade under a roundabout, two-thirds of a Dobson square under a shopping centre, a panopticon prison under an office block. Twelve buildings Newcastle no longer has, and the exact spot to stand to see where each one was.

Historic Churches and Places of Worship in Newcastle City Centre

Newcastle has two cathedrals within ten minutes of each other, three medieval parish churches, an oval Georgian church above the Quayside and the cloister of a Dominican friary. A guide to the city centre's places of worship, and the honest truth about their opening hours.