Church Heritage Record 608377

Three-bay aisled nave, small chancel, north and south vestries, west tower within but also projecting slightly beyond the west end of the south aisle, shallow west porch.

Nave 13m (40ft) x 5m (16ft).

Work on the church was begun shortly before 1900 by a private citizen as a non-conformist chapel; the building was only completed in 1904.  It was taken over by the Church of England and consecrated as a daughter church to the parish church of Prittlewell St Mary in 1922.  The church has been extended in recent years by the addition of a north-east vestry, and rooms within the original south-east vestry and in the west corner of the north aisle have been carved out of the available space. Since closure, it now belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church.

No-one could mistake this odd building for a church built by the Church of England.  It gives the impression of a larger church which has been shrunk; that is to say it has all the features and detailing of a larger church, but executed in miniature.  This gives it an undeniable naïve charm.  The architectural style chosen is probably meant to be defined by the short pointed lancets, but the feel of the church overall is nearer Georgian, due to the dimensions of the tower, the use of red brick, the form of the nave arcades and the furnishings.

The church is meant to be seen and entered from the west end, which faces onto the road.  The west end of the nave is square in form with a crenellated parapet, the north corner beyond the gable supported by a triangular brick gable with a demi-arch within, a kind of miniature flying buttress.  In front of this is a very shallow projecting porch of two stages, with in turn a small projection in front with a depressed arch-headed doorway with exposed brick voussoirs above, under a stepped gable with stone copings surmounted by a stone finial cross.  The projection is flanked by two small slit windows with brick lintels, now provisionally blocked with white hardboard due to vandalism, which looks very poor.

The internal doorway behind is pointed with a Bathstone surround, which would suggest that the outer porch is a later addition.  The lower stage and the projection are pebble-dashed, as is the parapet.  The second stage of the porch proper is of exposed brick and has two square openings flanking the finial cross, with pointed lancet openings within wooden frames.  These openings are also blocked with hardboard.

The aisles have flat roofs behind crenellated parapets with stone copings.  From the west only the north aisle is visible, which has a paired lancet window with a Bathstone square-headed cogged surround and label (all the windows are like this) within the square gable; again a triangular side gable with inset arch is provided. 

The tower flanks the nave to the south, projecting slightly to the west.  The tower is of two stages, with no external division; the crenellated parapet is defined by a single stone string-course.  The west face has a single lancet lighting the lower stage and a tall louvred two-light belfry opening in the same style as the aisle windows.  Moving around to the south side, the tower has a large pointed doorway of Bathstone with a hood-mould (this entrance is no longer used, see below). 

A small lancet is situated above and to the left of the doorway, lighting the stairs to the belfry.  Roughly opposite it is a stone plaque, now unreadable.  The belfry is lit from this side by a tall two-light, of the same style as the other windows, each light with a steel transom and mullion, with frosted glass (one pane missing and boarded up).  Above this and inset into the parapet is a clock face, with a moulded Bathstone surround and a label which terminates into the string course, and therefore obviously original to the church.

The south and north aisles both have three paired lancets, but these are unevenly spaced due to the fact that the tower takes up part of the south aisle; this asymmetry is also evident in the arcades (see below).  The clearstorey has three single lancets in each wall.  The nave and chancel gables have tile fleur-de-lys finials.

Moving around to the east end, the chancel is slightly lower than the nave, allowing for a small lancet with an artificial stone surround in the west gable of the latter.  The east face of the tower  has a tall lancet to light the stairs low down adjacent to the south aisle, and a two-light window to light the belfry stage, both like the one in the south face.  There is also a single small bell hung under a projecting gable, high up on the right.

The chancel east wall has three stepped lancets inside a recessed arch-headed surround high up in the gable, the wall below blank.  The modern extension flanks this to the south, with a domestic rectangular window.  The wall has been partly painted white, the painter apparently having run out of paint or enthusiasm half way across the chancel wall, leaving a very untidy prospect.  The north chapel has four single lancets in the east wall, and one smaller lancet in the north wall.

The interior is whitewashed throughout, sparsely lit by the small windows, though the artificial lighting is adequate for this small church, with down-lighters at clearstorey level.  The furnishings and fittings are conventional and date mostly to the period between the World Wars, though the benches which originally occupied the nave were recently removed and replaced by chairs for the Greek Orthodox community who have been meeting here. 

The tower space at the west end of the south aisle behind the simple pointed tower arch is now cluttered with furniture and a piano. There is a hatchment on the wall above.  Opposite this in the west end of the north aisle, a room of similar dimensions has been created with hardboard screens, this dating back to the recent use of the building on a lease by the Schizophrenic Society.  The south-east vestry was also converted at this time, the 4-centred arch giving access from the aisle boarded up with a modern domestic door now providing access; the matching arch the north-east organ chamber opposite has also been blocked off.

There is a wooden dado rail and panelling around the walls of the nave and aisles.  The aisle arcades are so low that one could jump and touch them.  They have 4-centred arches with a single chamfer, and spring from short octagonal piers with splayed bases and late Perpendicular moulded capitals, irregularly spaced to accommodate the west tower within the south aisle.  The clearstorey above is pierced by single pointed lights with clear glass.  There are stained glass windows in the south aisle.

The pointed chancel arch is of two simple orders.  Beyond this the east end of the chancel catches the eye, with its integral marble reredos and altar table and oak panelling beneath the stepped triple lancet stained glass window set high up in the wall.  The tiny chancel is now rather untidily cluttered with furniture and defunct organs.

The king-post nave roof is carried on simple moulded corbels.  It is of pitch pine, as is the waggon roof in the chancel.  The floors are of woodblock throughout, laid with blue carpet in the chancel.