not welcomed by local members of the clergy, who had historically gained reliable incomes from the practice of "pew rents". Architecture and design A Brighton-based architect, Edmund Scott, was commissioned by Wagner to undertake the design work—although modern interpretations of the modest nature of the work he undertook elsewhere in Brighton and surrounding areas tend to agree that he may have been directed and influenced extensively by Wagner, "a client who was prepared to disregard expense" on this project. Scott was not associated with any particular architectural movement, and worked alone on most of his projects, many of which no longer survive, although the Gothic Revival St Botolph's Church in the Heene area of nearby Worthing, built in 1873, remains an important example of his work. Two earlier examples of his less grand designs still remain in Portslade in the form of the Early English style St Andrew's Church, built in 1864 as a free and open church with no pew rents, and the original St Nicolas Church School, built in 1872 and now in use as an annex of Portslade Infants School. Exterior The exterior appearance is unusual and severe, especially because of the building's height and the manner in which it towers above nearby streets of low-level buildings. Many of the houses and other buildings which originally surrounded the church have been cleared, accentuating the contrast. However, the slightly taller buildings of the nearby New England Quarter development now reduce the church's visual impact from some angles, especially as the land they are built on is at a slightly higher level. High walls of reddish-brown brick, now aged to a purplish-brown colour, are topped by a steeply pitched roof with dark tiling. A mixture of red and black tiles were originally applied, but the roof was re-tiled in its present monochrome form in 1930. Running the length of the east and west sides of the exterior walls are a series of narrow buttresses with tall, pointed windows. On the south side, an unusually large rose window dominates the area below the apex of the roof, upon which stands a 9-foot gilt cross which brings the total height of the structure to . The building work was undertaken by a Brighton company, Stanning & Co., and cost £18,000 (1874 prices). This was in contrast to the £25,000 spent on St Peter's church around 50 years previously, under the supervision