St Michael's is a surprise: tucked away amongst the terraces in the fashionable Clifton area of…read moreBrighton, this large church seems almost out of place, its gothic red-brick contrasting with its white-stuccoed neighbours. It is only by looking up that you begin to realise just how big a building this is. That's partly because it is actually two churches in one, both built by renowned Victorian architects. The first was built by G F Bodley in 1861-62, and now forms the south aisle of the church. The interior features painted ceilings, tiled floors and polychromatic brick decoration. But the real joy of this part of the church is its pre-raphaelite stained glass windows, by Burne-Jones, Webb, Maddox-Brown, Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris. A stronger artistic pedigree from the 19th century would be hard to find. In 1893, work began on an extension by William Burges, with sculpture by Thomas Nicholls, which dwarfed the earlier building and became the main body of the church. This is in the French gothic style, on a cathedral-like scale, with an interior in stone rather than brick. The windows here are by Kemp, and there are other furnishings by Burges and Nicholls. But it is the sheer scale that makes this part special. The church is well worth a detour from the bustle of Brighton, in the streets below. As well as for services, the church can accommodate small groups for tours (arranged in advance). The church has recently become accessible for wheel-chair users.

Dubbed the "Cathedral of the Backstreets", St Michael's is a grand Victorian church perched on the…read morehill. Intended to provide moral succour to a godless city of decadence and excess it has been called the finest church in Sussex. It's an architectural gem. The first phase was completed in 1862 to a design by famous architect, George Frederick Bodley. It was subsequently extended in the 1890s. Followers of the arts and crafts movement should pay a call. There are fixtures, windows and other interior features by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, Philip Webb and Charles Faulkner. The church is open for visitors on Saturdays and there's usually someone on hand to guide you round. Proper guided tours are also held during the Brighton Festival. By Church of England standards its tradition is high, it draws a big congregation and the choir is very good too. The candlelit midnight mass at Christmas is particularly evocative and well worth attending. But do wrap up, it's cold in there. The church also serves as a cultural and community hub. The church hosts regular musical concerts and recitals as well as a host of lectures and talks through the year. The community hall is used by lots of groups and they also do important work for homeless people. Little known St Michael's fact. They do breakfast on a Saturday morning. It's a hearty breakfast and coffee for a few pounds and it's open to all. Check it out.

The church's website describes All Saints as 'one of the finest churches of the nineteenth century…read moreGothic Revival'. Possessed of an extraordinary interior, it was much admired by the eminent architectural historians Pesvner and Sir John Summerson, and is well worth seeking out. The church was the vision of Thomas Peacey, the first Vicar of Hove when it was made a parish in its own right in 1879. He rebuilt the old church (St Andrew's) and erected another (St Barnabas), before turning his attention to providing a new and spacious Parish church. The architect chosen was John Loughborough Pearson, viewed by many as the greatest architect of the Victorian Gothic revival. Amonst other things, he was responsible for the new cathedrals of Truro and Brisbane, as well as many churches in London. All Saints was to become the largest and costliest of his parish churches. Work began in 1889 and was largely completed by 1901, although the base of the tower was not finished until 1922 (and the remainder of the tower has, unfortunately, never been completed). Pearson chose a French C13th Early Decorated Gothic style for the new church, which is built of Sussex sandstone, and roofed with Sussex oak. The outside is attractive enough, with strong pinnacles around the south transept and chancel, although the tower base looks forlorn with its humble pyramidal cap. But the interior is breathtaking. For a start, the scale and proportions are those of a cathedral: the nave is 40ft wide, and flanked by generous aisles. And the walls are entirely faced with ashlar stone - clear evidence of no expense having been spared. The plan is conventional, with an aisled nave, short transepts, south chapel and chancel. The nave is particularly impressive: five bays of clustered piers rise through large clerestoreys towards transverse roof arches. These provide a repetitive pattern against the dark wooden roof, emphasising the height and leading the eye towards the chancel. Only the south chapel and sanctuary have stone vaults. The windows are equally impressive, and the church carries an almost complete scheme of stained glass by the famous company of Clayton and Bell. The north transept has three twin-light windows with a rose window above, whereas the south transept has a magnificent five-light window. The furnishings are equally impressive and lavish: pride of place goes to a stunning high-Victorian stone reredos, of Pearson's design and carved by Nathanial Hitch. There is elaborate wooden carving everywhere, most notably the screens of the South Chapel, the choir stalls and the amazing organ case, the latter designed by Pearson's son, Frank Pearson. The marble font is a later addition, dating from 1928, and carries a large ornate wooden cover. Although the pews have been removed, the replacement chairs are reasonably sympathetic, and the interior is very well maintained. The church takes advantage of the splendid setting to stage a wonderful Sung Eucharist, every Sunday at 10h. During the summer, they also host classical music concerts every Thursday, May to September (free to enter but donations requested), and lay on tea, coffee and biscuits. The church also has an active programme of children's groups, as well as other outreach and support groups. Details of other services and events can be found on the website.

From the owner: All Saints Hove is an inclusive catholic parish in the Church of England. We believe that there is…read morea place for everyone to receive the unconditional welcome of God, and we are a member of the Inclusive Church network. We seek to give to give a voice to those on the margins in our society and use our facilities to support the homeless and vulnerable and champion the outcast and poor. Whether you are looking for a grand period event space or a casual, cost-effective location to run classes or meetings, we make various spaces available for hire, for the purpose of offering community services and strengthening community spirit and bringing residents together.

Pevsner's 'The Buildings of England' describes St Bartholomew's as 'an unforgettable experience',…read moreand it's hard to better that description. This Victorian gothic edifice, just outside the centre of Brighton, is one of the most dramatic parish churches in the UK, with one of the highest naves in Europe. At 135ft (41m), it is just 7 feet lower than that of Cologne Cathedral. For many years, it dominated the view to the east as you arrived by train into Brighton station. (Alas, a sight no longer available thanks to the erection of some appallingly dull blocks of offices and flats). The building was the brainchild of Father Arthur Douglas Wagner, (1824-1902) himself son of the Vicar of Brighton, and a colourful local character: a wealthy young man, he was ordained in 1849, and became priest of St Paul's, Brighton (see separate Qype entry), which his father had essentially built for him. A leading Catholic Revivalist, and determined to develop a ministry to the poor, A D Wagner was to build several churches in Brighton, all out of his own pocket. Of these, St Bartholomew's is the best known. Built in 1872-74 to designs by a local architect, Edmund Scott, St Bartholomew's is in a plain Gothic style, and of brick throughout. The church is aligned north-south, with the main (ritual West) entrance on Ann Street. Standing in front of this gives a good foretaste of what is to come: a towering brick facade, containing a truly huge Rose Window, it completely dominates its surroundings. Once inside, the eye is immediately drawn upwards and forwards: the wooden wagon roof simply disappears in darkness, and nine bays of huge pointed arches lead the eye to a sanctuary containing an enormous baldachino, 45ft (15m) high, covered entirely in marble. The arches each contain a shallow chapel with a single lancet, with another lancet in the clerestory above. Polychromatic bricks are all that relieve the scale, for there is virtually no other ornament in the architecture. The accumulated grime on the walls gives the interior a dark and mysterious feel. The intended chancel was never built, and instead a sanctuary was created at the east end of the nave. This accommodates the baldachino and a huge pulpit also of marble both by the noted arts and crafts designer, Henry Wilson (1864-1924). He also designed the Lady Altar also known as the silver altar with a repoussé frontal of silver plate on copper and the pair of pillar-sized candlesticks either side of the altar. The whole effect is breathtakingly dramatic, and perfectly suited to the high Anglo-Catholic ritual and superb liturgical music, for which the church is renowned. The church has an active and busy parish life, and a weekly mass for the attached junior school. A constant stream of visitors from around the world walks through its doors daily, to see this astonishing building for themselves.

I walk past this sky scraper like church on my way to Sainsbury's, recently I ventured in to have a…read morepeak. I'm not religious, and I don't think that helps really. I found all the bronze and silver statues of Jesus and various friends dying to be a bit glum, and also a bit anthithetical given that the church asks for donations. In terms of the building though, it's unbelievably tall. From what I read, it's the tallest church in Europe, for that along, definitely visit if you're nearby. I found it massively interesting, the architecture is unlike much else, as is the slightly scared feeling you get walking around inside.

St Peter's Church is one of Brighton's most distinctive landmarks. Slightly out of the city centre…read moreon the main A23 to and from London, it sits in the middle of the gardens which run down to the sea, in splendid isolation. For many, it is the first memorable sight on entering the city. It is a grade II* listed building. The church was built originally as a 'Chapel of Ease' of the then parish church of St Nicholas, to accommodate the growing population of the city in the first quarter of the 19th century. A competition was held to design it, won by the young Charles Barry, later to find fame as the architect of the Houses of Parliament. The church was begun in 1824 and consecrated in 1828. Orientated north-south, the church had large aisle galleries and a simple hexagonal apse, making the interior typical of the 'preaching boxes' of the time. The exterior, however, with its confident Perpendicular Gothic forms - rows of buttresses and pinnacles and an innovative tower design - was a major departure for the time; the classical style was still in vogue for church building, alongside the more stylised 'Gothick' used in many country houses: many regard St Peter's as the most important neo-Gothic church of the pre-Victorian period. The church was substantially altered between 1898 and 1907 when the east end was replaced with a more traditional chancel, to designs by Somers Clarke and Micklethwaite. Built in deep yellow local sandstone, and itself an impressive work of late Perpendicular Gothic, this has, however, always contrasted somewhat uncomfortably with the earlier work in colour (Barry built in and style. The interior galleries were removed at the same time. Whilst this undoubtedly opened up the nave, it also drained some of the character from what is otherwise an impressive space. The church has a number of impressive windows by Kempe, perhaps most notably the jaw-droppingly vast east window, and the east and south-east windows in the south chapel. Increasing maintenance costs (not aided by elements of the original design, not least the unsuitably of Barry's stonework to resists the effects of salt-laden seaside air) were becoming beyond the means of its congregation, and led to the decision to declare the church redundant. It was closed in July 2009 and is now being run as a 'church plant' by Holy Trinity, Brompton, founders of the Alpha Course.

I find it pretty hard rating a church out of five, what with all the balancing my own quite open…read morebut non believing tendencies, with respect for those who do believe, I find I'm in a bit of a conundrum. But...I'll go for 3 stars. It's big and imposing, but it's also quite worn and tattered from the outside. 19th Century churches always make me think of Dicken's and Oliver, and general scary Victorian strictness, so I don't warm to this church all that much. However some of the glass windows and the art work in the ceiling is magnificent, and I'm sure with a full on choir in here, it can become pretty special.

Calvary Evangelical Church isn't somewhere I'd set foot in during the normal course of events, but…read moreit hosted my polling station today so I popped along to inscribe the necessary in the box required. In the course of this all too brief intermingling with the process of democracy, I cast my eyes about and was surprised to find that despite looking singularly unprepossessing from the outside, behind the shutters, Calvary is quite a pleasant place to be. The floors in particular are lovely polished wood and the atmosphere of the surprisingly small room I was in was warm and welcoming. The history of the church lies in the Railway Mission which, back in the day, was begun by three men and a woman with a joanna getting together for a bit of a sing-song of a Sunday. This grew and grew until they had a congregation of 400 and had to move to the Library Reading Room, and then continued to grow until they raised the grand sum of £2500, which in those days was enough to build the structure you see today. It's still very much a functioning evangelical church, so don't be surprised if everyone has that unhealthy light in their eyes - it's Jesus, not cataracts. However, it is hireable for certain events, and would doubtless be an agreeable function room or general facility.

Brighton's ancient parish church is easily overlooked on a visit to the town. The church sits in a…read morelovely churchyard, with lawns, mature trees and brick pavements, just yards from the busy modern shopping area of Churchill Square, and yet feels as if it would be equally at home in a Sussex village. Superseded as the parish church by St Peter's in the 19th century, it still claims itself as the 'Mother Church' of Brighton, and indeed St Nicholas was the patron Saint of fishermen, doubtless a natural choice for the original little fishing village of Brighthelmstone. Its history dates back to Saxon times: the Domesday book (1085) states that there was a church here in the time of King Edward (the Confessor, presumably), although nothing survives from this foundation. It is clear that it was rebuilt in the Norman period, and there is a small amount of Norman work in the tower. Otherwise, the church is substantially a late 14th century creation, from around 1380: the nave (five bays on octagonal piers), chancel and tower arches date from this time, and the outside of the tower is probably original too. The church was heavily restored around 1853, and a clerestory added in 1892. The church is notable, however, for its furnishings. Pride of place must go to its font: the great architectural historian Pevsner regarded it as the 'best piece of Norman carving in Sussex'. The font is drum shaped, and probably dates from around 1170. The surface is completely carved, with scenes representing the Last Supper; St Nicholas and the ship; the Baptism of Christ; and another presumed story of St Nicholas. The base has a decorative frieze below the scenes, featuring scallops, scrolls and half rosettes. It is a stunning survivor. Other fittings are mostly Victorian. Close to the font is the Duke of Wellington memorial (1853): the young Wellington attended church here, and the huge octagonal sculpture, in the shape of a font cover but inspired by the Eleanor crosses, is elaborately carved in best Decorated Gothic style. There are walls painting on the east and west nave walls by Kempe, as well as some attractive stained glass, also by Kempe. An iron plaque commemorates another regular worshipper, Samuel Johnson, and a medallion celebrates another, the actress Dame Flora Robson. Outside, two headstones are worth a look: the first, commemorates Phoebe Hessel, who dressed as a man and served - and fought - as a foot soldier and died aged 108 in 1821; and the second, to Martha Gunn (d. 1815): 'Peculiarly Distinguished as a bather in this town 70 years'. It clearly did her good, as she lived to be 88.

On Wednesday's there are concerts starting at 1230hrs, put on by various Musicians or Singers, for…read moreabout three quarters of an hour. These are free, but a donation is appreciated. Prior to the concert tea and biscuit are availble for 50 P.

This fairly small church is brimming with activity all week long which is exactly what all churches…read moreshould be doing. They even offer bowls and fitness clubs if this gives you a clue. I was sat on a bus just today and was chatting to an older lady who out of the blue said 'I think the vicar must be taking his clothes off every sunday, they get so many people in' This really tickled me but I guess you had to be there. Otherwise, it has lots to offer religiously and you can hire the hall from £14 an hour if you would like to start your own groups. Lastly, when you go past they always have a poster which says a quote which always makes you think positively so go past and check it out.