Church Heritage Record 623209

The church consists of a short chancel, a nave with a gallery on three sides and vestries on the south. At the west is a vestibule flanked by stair-halls.

Chancel 3m (10ft) x 5.75m (18ft), nave 20m (70ft) x 13m (45ft).

Evidence of nearby Roman occupation was found when a large amount of pottery was discovered in Lower Teddington Road in 1992. Hampton Wick owes its foundation to its strategic position opposite Kingston, where there has been a bridge since at least the early 13th century and probably a ford before then. The building of Hampton Court Palace in the 16th century nearby encouraged the growth of inns and shops serving the palace.

Originally part of Hampton, in 1831 the church of St John the Baptist was built and Hampton Wick became a separate parish. By 1861 the population was around 2000.  The church was erected in 1829-31 by the Commissioners at an expense of £4,337, to the design of Edward Lapidge, a local architect. His father was an assistant to Lancelot Brown and then held the post of Chief Gardener at Hampton Court.

A great deal of the church of 1830 remains, the nave including the roof, the galleries, the vestibule, stair-halls and the belcote. The west window was moved from the east wall of the church when the chancel was built in 1887. There were restorations in the 1880s, the choir vestry on the south was added in 1898 and the vestry on the north side of the chancel in 1911, when the present pews were also introduced. There were repairs and modernisation in the 1930s and 1950s.

The church was built in a rather inventive and idiosyncratic late Gothic style, although the “Commissioners” idiom is evident.  The lancet windows employed throughout have wide, rather exaggerated cusps, the roof trusses and vault have drop-like corbels and the west front and the galleries are embellished with large-scale cresting employed as a frieze.

The belcote with saw-tooth crown and pinnacle and the tall octagonal turrets, all originally with domed caps, give some vertical emphasis. There are parapets all round, and buttresses are of two tall weathered stages. The gabled west elevation of the nave stands forward and is framed by turret-like rectangular buttresses, and is flanked by lower lean-to stair housings, slightly set back and with diagonal buttresses at the corners. The nave windows are tall as they light both above and below the gallery. They have pointed heads and are all of two lights with the characteristic cusps of 1830 and tracery of a quatrefoil between mouchettes.

The chancel is very short because of the proximity of the boundary on that side. The east window is of three lights with a rose in the tracery, there are 2-lights to the side walls as described above.

The chancel floor is three steps higher than that of the nave and extends well forward of the chancel arch. The chancel arch has two continuous chamfered orders and a shallow pointed head. The nave is of five bays and has a gallery on three sides that now stops short of the eastern bay. The last roof truss has also been removed but the corbels remain. The gallery is supported on cast iron columns with four attached shafts and roll and hollow moulded caps. The front is rather plain except for a band of crenellated ornament.

At the west are two enclosures with open wooden screens in Gothic style, that on the north houses the font and dates from 1916, the other was made in 1960 and is used as a children’s corner; it is partly glazed with inset stained glass panels depicting saints, presumably brought from somewhere else.

The west door of the nave is set in a pointed arch with a continuous deep chamfer, and beyond this is a shallow vestibule with a quadripartite ribbed vault on rounded corbels. Each side is a narrow compartment with a stone stair leading to the gallery and a narrow single light window with pointed head.  The pews of 1912 are made of pine with a dark finish. The bench ends are moulded but very square and panels are made of vertical boarding. Floors are of red and black quarry tiles, with encaustic tiles in the sanctuary and baptistery.

The roofs are both of shallow pitch. The chancel has a coffered ceiling and a single moulded truss with hammer beam wall brackets. The trusses of the nave roof have moulded tie beams and arch braces with cusped roundels and mouchette in the spandrels. Each carry a series of posts that support the principle rafters and are divided into three by heavier moulded posts with pendants, which frame four centred arches above and stop the braces below. A moulded ridge piece is the only longitudinal member.