Anglican (and some Catholic) friends usually regard post-war Catholic churches with a degree of horror. The Catholic Church in this country tended to be the major patron of ecclesiastical buildings throughout this period, the Church of England being overendowed already with churches; Coventry Cathedral is an obvious exception to this rule.
After the end of the Second World War there was a hiatus in the building of new churches because of the shortage of materials. Such Catholic churches as were built in the 1950s tended to retain a traditional rectangular shape with altar and sanctuary at the east end. St Mary and St Joseph, Poplar by Adrian Gilbert Scott (1954) falls into this category, as does The Most Holy Trinity, Dockhead, Southwark with its wonderful polychromatic brick west front by Harry Goodhart-Rendel (1959).
