CHAPTER 17: ADDITIONAL CHURCHES

CLXVIII—All Hallows' (formerly Church of the Good Shepherd, Savernake Road, Gospel Oak)

This church owes its existence to the exertions of the Rev. Charles Mackeson (1843–99), compiler of the annual Guide to the Churches of London and its Suburbs. He started his work here in 1885 in the Church of the Good Shepherd.

The foundation stone of the new church was laid by Mary, Duchess of Teck, 23rd July, 1892, and it was consecrated on 23rd January, 1901. (ref. 35) The architect was James Brooks, but the chancel was later built from a revised design by Sir Giles Scott in 1913.

The church is one of Brooks' later and most striking works and is wholly built in stone. The nave (without a clerestory) and aisles have separate parallel roofs and are divided by arcades of columns with plain round shafts. The intended vault in the nave, for which the vaulting ribs (dying on the piers) are to be seen, has not been constructed, the present ceiling being of wood. The chancel has triplet lancets with glass by Powell.

Near the S.W. corner of the interior are some stones which formed the first course of one of the columns of the church of All Hallows the Great, Thames Street, London, as it existed before the Fire of 1666. These commemorate the grant towards the building made from the sale of the site of the City church and the transference of its endowment to the new parish. Memorials include one to Howard Kitchener Franklin Smith (d. 1933), a founder and benefactor of the church.

Vicars:

CLXIX—Holy Trinity (Clarence Way)

Holy Trinity Church, Clarence Way, was built in 1850, largely through the initiative of the first incumbent, the Rev. David Laing, M.A., F.R.S., appointed to the district in 1847. (ref. 35) A tablet to him in the south porch states that he devoted the whole of his stipend in addition to gifts of £4,600 to the building of the church. Two other tablets commemorate members of the Laing and West families of Jamaica, relatives of the first incumbent.

This church consists of nave with aisles (separately roofed), aisled chancel and tower and spire (the upper part has been removed). It is faced with Kentish rag and was designed by Wyatt and Brandon, who presented the font. It is in the style of English Gothic of the 14th century.

Incumbents (perpetual curates):

CLXX—St. Andrew's (Malden Road, Kentish Town)

This church was built in 1866, the foundation stone being laid on the 5th of January. (ref. 35) The first design of the architect, Charles Foster Hayward, had been prepared some nine years previously, but the necessary money was not forthcoming until an anonymous gift to the Bishop of London's Fund enabled the church to be erected, though within a limit of £4,500. (ref. 133) It is Gothic in style, yellow stock bricks and malms being used to give a polychromatic effect within and without. The south front has a triple gabled porch between a tall bell turret and a circular projecting staircase. In the gable is a rose window over a pair of triple lancets. The aisle arcades have brick arches supported on stone piers.

Vicars:

CLXXI—St. Anne, Brookfield Church

This church occupies the site of the Cow and Hare, which stood between West Hill and Swain's Lane, Highgate, where they meet. The property belonged to Richard Barnett (Survey of London, XVII, p. 68), who died in 1851, and it was his sister, Anne Barnett, who gave the site and erected the church at her own expense in memory of her brother. (ref. 35) The church was dedicated in 1853. Miss Barnett died in 1858 in her 85th year, according to an inscription within a quatrefoil on the south wall of the chancel.

The church has aisles to the nave, under separate roofs, and a west tower with steeple. The facing is of Bath Stone and coursed rubble and the church in Early English style was designed by T. Bellamy. The peal of bells was the gift of Miss Coutts, later Baroness Burdett-Coutts.

Vicars:

CLXXII—St. Barnabas' (Kentish Town Road)

The church of St. Barnabas, Kentish Town Road, was built in 1884–85 for a congregation which had been in existence since 1880. (ref. 35) It is a well-proportioned small church in stock brick and stone. The nave has independently roofed aisles of two bays and the chancel ends in a wide apse with a ring of lancet windows (Plate 94). At the west end of the centre compartment is a narthex with a gallery over and a small octagonal bell tower at its north-west angle. The north aisle finishes with a western apse, used as a baptistry. The nave is roofed with a pointed wooden vault and there is no chancel arch. The church was designed by Ewan Christian.

Figure 43: St. Barnabas', Kentish Town

Vicars:

CLXXIII—St. Benet and All Saints' (Lupton Street, Kentish Town)

This church was built in 1884–85 on a site given by St. John's College, Cambridge. (ref. 134) It was originally designed by Joseph Peacock, but the chancel was added by Cecil G. Hare, 1908, who rebuilt the nave in 1928. (ref. 135) The church is built of brick and the nave is without aisles.

Vicars:

CLXXIV—ST. Luke's (Oseney Crescent, Kentish Town)

A church of St. Luke, built in Euston Road to the design of John Johnson, had to be removed when St. Pancras Station was built. The church was carefully taken down and re-erected in Grove Road, Wanstead, where it was opened as a congregational church in 1867. (ref. 136) The money paid in compensation by the Midland Railway was used to build this new church, to which the vicar of the old church, the Rev. C. H. Andrews, was appointed. (ref. 137) The site was presented by Christ Church College, Oxford, whose estate (bequeathed to the College by Dr. Robert South, by his will of 1714) extends from Oseney Crescent to Kentish Town Road. According to a letter from John Johnson, published in The Builder, 27th June, 1868, it was intended that he should be the architect of the new building, but the vicar of St. Pancras (the Rev. W. W. Champneys) commissioned his son, Basil Champneys (1842–1935) to design the church. This was his first important work; his best-known building is the John Rylands Memorial Library, Manchester.

The church was built in 1868–69, of red brick and stone in the Early English style. An aisled church with apsidal east end it is chiefly conspicuous for its central tower, the belfry of which has three tall lancets on each face, and four gables, each pierced by a rose window. The west end has a large rose window over three graduated lancets (Plate 95). The vicarage, also by Champneys (fn. a) was an interesting and unusual example of domestic architecture for its period. It was demolished in 1950.

Vicars:

Henry Clifford Radclyffe was appointed perpetual curate to the original church in 1849. He was succeeded in 1860 by C. H. Andrews, who became first vicar of the new church.

CLXXV—St. Mark's (Prince Albert Road)

This church was built in 1851–52, the money being raised by subscription and the site given by the architect, Thomas Little. (ref. 138) A new chancel was later added by Sir Arthur Blomfield, and there is a drawing by him in the vestry, as well as two drawings by Thos. Little. St. Mark's was burnt by incendiary bombs on 21st September, 1940, but the steeple and main walls remain. The style is Early English. The galleries were removed in 1890 and 1908. A drawing of the church appeared in The Illustrated London News, 30th April, 1853. The patrons are the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.

Vicars:

CLXXVI—St. Martin's (Vicar's Road, Gospel Oak)

This church was built at the sole cost of J. D. Allcroft (1821–93), of Stokesay Court, Salop., in memory of his wife, and consecrated on 3rd December, 1865. (ref. 35) Allcroft, a prominent freemason and partner in a glovemaking firm, also built the vicarage, mission hall and Sunday Schools and endowed the whole. There is a memorial to him on the south wall of the church. The architect was Edward Buckton Lamb, and the church is unusual both in plan and in the highly personal treatment of the late Gothic. It is built of Kentish rag and the eastern part of the interior is aisled. Each aisle has three bays, the centre one being wider than the other two and forming a transept on the north and south, the latter finishing in octagonal fashion. The eastern bay on each side forms part of the chancel, which has a sanctuary planned as five parts of an octagon. The lofty tower stands on the north side of the western part of the nave. (Plate 96a.) Its pinnacles were affected by bombing in the late war and have been removed. The piers to the arcades have shafts above the capitals and carry a wide hammer-beam roof and the wooden arches of the aisles.

Figure 44: St. Martin's Gospel Oak

Vicars:

CLXXVII—St. Mary, Brookfield Church (Dartmouth Park Hill)

Built by public subscription, this church was opened on 31st August, 1875, the chancel being built later and consecrated in July, 1881. The original architect was William Butterfield, but "on completion of the nave certain unpleasanteries occurred . . . The architect refused to complete the church." (ref. 4) The nave, with a broad arcade and clerestory windows above is a fine piece of work. The present chancel was designed by W. C. Street. The rood is by Sir Ninian Comper. A sculptured alabaster fragment of medieval date, let into one of the columns, was found (with another piece now in Whitton Church, Middlesex) in a farmhouse in the Vale of Llangollen and may have come from Valle Crucis Abbey. It was placed in the church by the Rev. P. H. Rogers, vicar, 1907–28.

Vicars:

CLXXVIII—St. Silas-the-Martyr church (Prince of Wales Road)

This church was erected in 1911–12 to succeed a mission church (now a recreation room) built in 1884. The architect was E. C. Shearman.

Vicars:

CLXXIX—St. Thomas' (Wrotham Road)

This church was built in 1862–63 at the cost of the Midland Railway Company to replace the church formerly in Agar Town and removed by them for railway works. (ref. 35) It stands on the site of the Wrotham Arms and is endowed by the Church Commissioners. The architect was Samuel Sanders Teulon and the church is an interesting specimen of his style. It is built of brick diapered and banded and its main feature is a square tower over the sanctuary, with an octagonal brick lantern with a pyramid roof above. The sanctuary has an apsidal west end that abuts on the tower. (Plate 96b.) The building is now derelict.

Figure 45: St. Thomas', Wrotham Road

Vicars:

Footnotes

References