File:St Stephen's Church, Bournemouth, Dorset.jpg

English: St Stephen’s Church dominates the eastern half of Bournemouth town centre, and is one of the finest Gothic Revival structures in the West Country. Designed by John Loughborough Pearson, architect of Truro Cathedral with which it shares similarities, the main body was built 1881 to 1897.

Designed, like Truro, in the Early English style with French influences, it was created as a memorial to the first vicar of St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth’s other splendid Gothic Revival church, designed by George Edmund Street.

The exterior is dominated by the huge, but incomplete, north west tower, completed by Pearson’s son Frank to the original design, from 1907 to 1908. A planned slender spire to rival that at St Peter’s was planned, but never finished, and subsequently the tower is capped by a low pyramidal roof.

The building has notable French influences, with a flèche over the crossing and several conical towers. The interior is no less splendid, with large lancet and rose windows, purbeck marble columns and ribbed stone vaulting. Open most days, it is a masterpiece, but because it is located away from the main shopping area, is not so heavily visited as St Peter’s.