St James's United Reformed Church

About St James's United Reformed Church

St James's is listed Grade II* and was built between 1882 and 1884 to designs by T. Lewis Banks. From Northumberland Road the octagonal spire is the signal, but the thing that makes the building architecturally unusual sits behind it: a slate-hung central lantern over a glass roof carried on pendentives, an arrangement much closer to a domed civic hall than to a conventional nave-and-aisles church. It is the most surprising interior of any city-centre place of worship outside the two cathedrals, and the least known.

The congregation is United Reformed, formed from the Presbyterian and Congregational traditions, and the building is in active use for worship and for community and concert hire. No routine visitor opening hours are published, so this is one to catch at a service, a concert or on a Heritage Open Days weekend rather than to plan a midweek visit around. Step-free access could not be confirmed from any first-party source at the time of writing, so contact the church directly if that matters. Haymarket Metro is about five minutes away.

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