Unless you’re Catholic, you may never have set foot in an undeniably beautiful building right in the city centre. Our tabernacle appreciation correspondent Angus Young had a shufty.
I was prompted to pose this question after reading a new planning application submitted to Hull City Council. Part of it seeks listed building consent to demolish an internal wall between the front and rear reception rooms in the presbytery of St Charles Borromeo Church in Jarratt Street to create a new larger community space. The presbytery was created by modifying two early 19th century town houses to provide a home for several priests, a deacon and a housekeeper required for the new Roman Catholic church built next door in 1829.
Today it is occupied by just one priest Father Phil Cunnah who divides his time between St Charles Borromeo in Hull and two churches in Holderness – Saint Mary and Saint Joseph in Hedon and Saint Peter and Saint John Fisher in Withernsea. As for his official home, it’s now regarded as being too large for just a single priest serving several parishes hence the current conversion plans. The idea behind creating a new larger internal space is part of an initiative to host more public tours of the church highlighting its stunning art and architecture.
Many places in Hull lay claim to be the city’s best kept secret but, in my humble opinion, none come close to St Charles because unless you happen to be Catholic the magnificent interior remains largely unseen and unknown. Father Phil says he’s hoping to change that by making the church more accessible and by encouraging more visitors to enjoy it.
Originally, the church’s walls were largely bare but the whole interior was painted and decorated in 1841. Just over 45 years later a new senior priest William Sullivan was appointed with grand plans to upgrade the building which was now the focal point for a rapidly expanding Catholic community living in the city centre.
Previously an oblong hall with little decoration, it was transformed at a cost of £3,000 in the style of the Italian Renaissance with many new features being reproduced from the great churches of Rome. The architects responsible were a local firm, Smith Brodrick and Lowther, but the artist behind many of the paintings and decorative work still one show today hailed from Germany. Heinrich Immen-Kamp had moved to Hull and was living in nearby Wright Street at the time of the facelift in the early 1890s. A contemporary newspaper report describes him as a “decorator of much taste and capacity” who had turned the church into “one of the prettiest chapels in England”.
Immen-Kamp is now a largely forgotten figure in Hull but his work at St. Charles remains his lasting legacy. Virtually every wall carries some of his decorative flourishes. Father Cunnah’s predecessor, the Very Rev. Canon Michael Loughlin, said: “St. Charles’ is a magnificent example of flamboyant Austrian rococo and Italian Baroque architecture, more reminiscent of the sunny climes of Italy or Spain than the north of England. “This beauty and splendour in the heart of Hull is one of the city’s best-kept secrets.”
As well as the visual overload, there is a huge chunk of religious history to digest if you happen to spend time in the church. My personal favourite story relates to a painting of the Nativity hung in the north aisle which was brought to Hull in 1798 by a French priest who smuggled it out of his home country to prevent it being destroyed by revolutionaries. The priest reputedly hid the painting in a cart full of hay but was stopped on his journey by soldiers who thrust bayonets into the hay looking for hidden goods. Somehow the painting wasn’t discovered but it was damaged and still features a tear in the fabric made by a bayonet blade.
St. Charles will be opening to the public for guided tours as part of this year’s Heritage Open Days weekend in September.