Church Heritage Record 623423

Nave of five bays with aisles and clerestory; north porch; north and south transepts. Choir vestry south of south transept. Chancel with north and south chapels, tower and spire north of the north chapel, priest's vestry south of south chapel.

The church was designed by Charles Robert Baker King, and was the second church (after the mediaeval parish church) to be built in the parish of Willesden. It was founded by the Revd. Charles William Williams who had been Principal of the North London Collegiate School for Boys, and was built at the cost of his sister; he became the first incumbent. The site was marked out on 22 October 1864 and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in approving the plans, offered a grant of £500 to ensure that the tower and spire were built at the same time as the church. The building of the south aisle and transept was therefore postponed instead. The trench for the foundations was dug on 26 June 1865 and the foundation stone was laid on 1 November in that year by Mrs. Williams. The completed chancel, nave, north aisle, north transept and tower and spire were consecrated on 21 November 1866 by Bishop Anderson (formerly of Ruperts Land) in place of Bishop Tait of London who was ill. The parish was formally constituted on 3 August 1867 and on 7 May 1868 was declared to be a Rectory. The choir vestry was added in 1909. The church was damaged by a landmine which caught in neighbouring trees during the night of 16 October 1940, shattering the windows and severly damaging the roof. It was restored by E.B. Glanfield (1885-1955) and re-dedicated by the Bishop of London on 16 October 1948.

The church is a large building in a late Early English style which was rather old fashioned by this date. The influence of King's master, Gilbert Scott, is evident in the choice of style and in the general appearance of the church, although the planning is perhaps rather looser than Scott's. To take advantage of the site the steeple is placed & the north-east corner of the building, nearest the crossroads. It is a massive construction, the tower being of four unequal stages with paired angle buttresses above a prominent chamfered plinth. The lowest stage has a two-centred arched doorway with shafts and moulded arch in the north face (towards the road) and a three-light window in the east face. The two intermediate stages may be taken together, since both are of roughly equal height and both are decorated with arcading - three arches to each wall in the case of the second stage and six arches to each wall for the third stage. The uppermost stage which houses the bells has in each face a large two-light window with a quatrefoil in the head flanked by a pair of slender blind arches on shafts. The corbel table at the head of the wall is formed of shapes like the moulded capitals of wall-shafts. The spire is of smooth stone without any decoration up the edges, and has two-light lucarnes set low in the principal faces and octagonal pinnacles (of tather small proportions) at the angles set on truncated pyramids. The only decoration on the spire itself is an encircling band of trefoils under gablets near the top.

The rest of the exterior continues the Late First Pointed style, with a triplet of lancets under moulded hoods in the east gable of the chancel and two single lancets in the north and south walls. The chapels to north and south are gabled parallel to the chancel and have two-light east windows with simple geometrical tracery. The same is true of the vestry, of slightly smaller dimensions, to the south of the south chapel. The transepts project from the western part of the nave and have large three-light windows with geometrical tracery in the north and south gables, and south of the south transept a small lobby communicates with the choir vestry, an almost free-standing room gabled parallel to the body of the church of two bays with triplet windows in each bay of the south wall and three-light windows of slightly later style than those of the main church in the east and west walls.

The aisles of the nave, though built over thirty years apart, are of symmetrical design, with one two-light window to each bay with a sexfoil above and buttresses marking the division of the bays. The north porch has an outer doorway with two orders of nook-shafts and a moulded arch and three small windows in each side wall, but the south porch has never been built (although it is clearly prepared for in the masonry). The clerestory is divided into bays by pilaster strips and has trefoiled lancets set in pairs in each bay. The west gable of the nave has a big five-light window with geometrical tracery and below that a doorway set under a moulded arch with shafted responds housed under a gablet which breaks the sill of the window. The aisles each have three-light windows with geometrical tracery in the west wall. The only difference between the original north side of the church and the later south side is that the apex of the south transept gable is decorated with chequerworkof two colours of stone, a device repeated on the choir vestry added ten years later.

The interior of the church holds no surprises, but is a good substantial provision of accommodation for large congregations without any special elaboration. The proportions are good and the general effect is dignified. The nave arcades have arches of two hollow chamfers set on cylindrical columns with round bases, which are simply chamfered, and moulded capitals. The walls are plastered and were whitewashed when the church was restored in 1948 , and the stone dressings are left exposed. The floor is paved with red quarries with black edging in the alleys and is laid with wood block flooring of good quality under the pews. The roof is set above wall-shafts at each bay, with brackets carrying arch braces and plainer intermediate trusses. The clerestory windows are shafted. Since all the stained glass (save the richly coloured east window) was removed after war damage, the interior is lighter than many churches of this date.

The transepts communicate with the nave by arches of much larger scale than those of the nave arcade, separated from them by piers of masonry. The north transept has housed the organ since 1948. The chancel is raised two steps above the level of the nave and is closed by an oak screen added in 1913. The south chapel is at the same level as the nave floor, but that on the north is raised. Although it has no altar now, there is a footpace of black and white marble.

The chancel arch has grouped shafts with moulded capitals against the responds and the arch itself is richly moulded. The chancel roof is boarded and divided into square panels by moulded ribs. The panels over the choir are painted with crosses, roses and sacred monograms in red and gold and the western half of the sanctuary has formalised crosses. The roof over the altar itself, oddly, has no painted decoration, though clearly some was intended. The arches opening from the chancel into the north and south chapels are of two bays within one large arch, the inner arches carried on quatrefoil shafts of grey marble or serpentine, with a blind quatrefoil in the spandrel above. These, like the chancel arch, are spanned by oak screens.

The chancel is paved with alternating squares of white marble and red tiles and after one step at the communion rails, the floor becomes a pavement of red and white marble with steps of grey marble, a quietly opulent effect. There is one more step east of the rails and then two steps which return to the east wall. In the south wall are two sedilia under trefoiled arches with stops carved as heads and shafts of red marble or alabaster, and the credence shelf which takes the place of a piscina is similar. The effect of the marble floor, the alabaster reredos, and the east lancets is shafted with alabaster and contains strongly coloured stained glass of 1877. The lancets in the side walls, with trefoiled heads, are also shafted.

The choir vestry has plastered walls and attractive tracery in the east and west windows. The roof is and divided into two equal bays by an arch-brace.