[4] Built on a prominent site on the outskirts of the town of Blackburn, on what is now Brownhill Drive,[5] at the time of its construction it sat within a contemporaneous 1930s housing estate.

Constructed principally of brick,[2] with internally rendered walls, wood block floor, St Gabriel's in its original form was widely cited as Velarde's masterpiece, but a range of issues with the building have made it subject to significant alteration since its completion.

[4] St Gabriel's had a highly decorated, polychromatic interior with chrome and stainless steel in contrast to the cream-coloured plaster of the "long tunnel nave"[7] and spare fenestration.

Commissioned to design stained glass for the baptistery,[7] Clarke, then twenty-four years old, produced working studies for the slender, arched fenestration, fabricating and installing the windows himself in 1977.

In 1978, Clarke and the restoration of St Gabriel's were the subject of the cover story of the journal Architectural Review[14] with an artwork titled Velarde is Not Mocked.