George Mathers (architect)

George Mathers (1919 – 11 October 2015) was an architect, most notable for the Grade II listed Marychurch in Old Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England.

His career in church building began when he was asked to design a chapel for Catholic nuns in 1957.

Taking Stock describes the church as being based on a pentagram: "The building is externally clad in loadbearing brick laid in English garden wall bond (five courses of stretchers to each course of headers), surmounted by a reinforced concrete ring beam and a steel framed main roof covered with Cornish slates.

It is surmounted by an aluminium spirelet and cross and lit by dormer windows, considered by The Buildings of England to be ‘unfortunately spiky’.

"[3] The altar was contributed by the sculptor Angela Godfrey, who was commissioned by Mathers shortly after graduating from King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne.

[4] "His beautiful round Marychurch in Old Hatfield, of 1971, with its glorious coloured glass windows, was grade II listed in 2013 – a rare achievement for a living architect.

Historic England in its listing says of the building: "the exterior uses both traditional and modern materials, referencing the early-C20 church to the north, but making use of contrasting texture and colour to good effect.

[6] Mathers collaborated with several notable Roman Catholic artists on this building including Dom Charles Norris and Dom Paulinus Angold (who contributed the dalle de verre glass) and Angela Godfrey who contributed the welded steel screen and font.