St Joseph's Church, York

About St Joseph's

St Joseph’s was designed by architect Frederick Dyer and built between 1939-1942 to serve the many new houses in Clifton and Rawcliffe. Many of the parishioners at the time worked for Rowntree's chocolate factory. 

The church is modelled after a Roman basilica, with an Italianate campanile, high clerestory windows, and a rounded apse. A recent guidebook reflects that the church's ‘hipped roofs, rustic weatherboarding […] and tiled corbellings […] all serve to give a flavour of Arts and Crafts.’ At night, the cross in the tower and the statue of St Joseph are illuminated to provide a beacon of hope to all who pass along Kingsway North.