Gerard Goalen

Gerard Thomas Goalen (16 December 1918 – 2 January 1999) was a British architect who specialised in church architecture and was influenced by continental models and the Liturgical Movement.

He was one of the most important architects of the Catholic Modernist movement in the United Kingdom during the 20th century.

Goalen was born in Birkenhead, then part of Cheshire, in December 1918.

He attended Douai School before going on to study at the University of Liverpool's School of Architecture, where he produced a final year thesis project on a modern pilgrimage church.

Goalen had one son, John Martin Goalen (born 1946), also an architect.

Goalen is regarded as one of the key British architects of the Roman Catholic Liturgical Movement in the UK that resulted in a large number of new modernist RC churches being built, and other churches being reordered.

A group of architects that included Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, Gerard Goalen, Francis Pollen, Desmond Williams and Austin Winkley, utilised contemporary design and construction methods to deliver the ‘noble simplicity’ instructed by Vatican I. Goalen explained how he began building churches.

""I was first asked to design a Catholic church in 1953 (the design remained on paper for five years before we received approval to build it).

Nearly nine years after receiving this first commission, I was asked to design another Catholic church, and since then I have received, at fairly regular intervals, commissions for Catholic, Anglican and Nonconformist churches.""

- Goalen, Gerard

While working as Senior Architect for Harlow New Town Development Corporation, he was recommended for the task of building a new Catholic Church to the parish priest Francis Burgess by the architect-planner Frederick Gibberd.

Both the Catholic Church and the town's planners wanted to create a landmark building, and Gibberd believed that Goalen's previous experience in the town would help him create a building that fitted with the overall aims of the redevelopment

. This led to his first church commission – Our Lady of Fatima, Harlow, which led to Goalen being able to set up in private practice and build and reorder more churches.

Goalen is seen as an influential Modernist and four of his churches are now listed:

Our Lady of Fatima, Harlow, is a Grade II* listed Roman Catholic Church designed by Gerard Goalen in 1953-4.

The brief was for a church that could hold 500 parishioners, set as close as possible to a free-standing altar.

The sanctuary was to be generously sized.

Goalen was recommended for the job by his boss at Harlow New Town Development, Frederick Gibberd.

A model of the church was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1956 and the church was extremely influential.

Proctor and Gillick argued that the liturgical movement was a significant influence in this church and that was also closely related to the egalitarian social aims of post-war modern urban planning in Harlow.

The church cost £60,000 to build, and the Catholic Review noted it owed much "to the generosity of Fr. Burgess's parents".

It was one of the first post-war churches to break away from the traditional longitudinal plan, being T-shaped, with the sanctuary at the central crossing.

The church's reinforced concrete frame allows for large areas of dalle de verre by Dom Charles Norris, an early use of this medium.

The church was extremely influential, with Andrew Derrick crediting it with influencing Frederick Gibberd's winning entry for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

Building started in 1958 and was completed in 1960.

The church is built in reinforced concrete and Surrey stock bricks.

The roof is clad in copper, with concrete and asphalt for the aisles.

The 84-foot central spire is made of plywood sheathed in copper.

""For the church the architect, Mr. Gerard Goalen, has drawn up plans for a building with three naves, walls of coloured glass to give a warm internal radiance and a strictly liturgical layout.""

Goalen also designed the tabernacle and high altar candlesticks and cross.

In 1998 a view of the church was the main image on the cover of an album by the British duo The Chemical Brothers.

The building was not without its critics.

It closed in 2001–2005 in order for £500,000 of repairs to be made to the glass in its walls.

The architect Robert Maguire, writing in the Ecclesiology Today (Issue 27, January 2002) commented: "Gerard Goalen's T-shaped church of Our Lady of Fatima at Harlow, resplendent with its Buckfast Abbey glass. My only serious criticism of this – and it is serious – is that God's Holy People are divided, like All Gaul, into three parts."

In December 2017 it was reported in the local press that the church had to be closed while repairs were made to the spire.

It had previously had to close for work to be carried out on its concrete infrastructure.

In 2023 Historic England raised its grade as a protected building to Grade II*.

This was on the basis of its design with the alter surrounded by seats for the congregation and the large amount of modern stained glass that illuminates the interior.

The Church of the Good Shepherd, Nottingham is a Roman Catholic church located on Thackerays Lane in Woodthorpe, a suburban area of Arnold, Nottingham.

It is a Grade II* listed building.