Church Heritage Record 623203

Aisled nave of five bays (narrower west bay), transepts, chancel of two bays, shallow south porch in easternmost bay of aisle and modern steel and glass porch in central bay; vestry to the south of the chancel.

Nave 12m (37ft) x 10m (31ft); aisles each 4m (12½ft) wide.

The church was built on the site of a mission chapel which preceded it by a few years.  It was designed by C N Tudor and J S Alder and mostly built between 1888-9, the chancel and parsonage completed in 1894.  J S Alder was very prolific in North London, his work generally less austere than this, the detailing is perhaps his trademark.  The church was radically reordered and subdivided in 1970 by the Norman Haines Partnership, whereby the internal orientation of the church was reversed.

This is a medium size church in the lancet style, quite conventional in design but elaborated with an unusual amount of detailing which raises it above the average.  The best and only unencumbered view of the building is to be had from the school looking south. 

The church has no tower but is quite tall, and dominates the buildings around it. A belcote at the west end gives more vertical emphasis. 

Moving down the west elevation, the corbelled brickwork supporting the belcote is pierced by the heads of four lancets, the outer pair blind, the inner tall slits which terminate in a brick string-course. Beneath this, the nave west window is a tall plate tracery two-light, the head again pierced by a roundel.  The window is flanked by a pair of octagonal pilasters which terminate in rounded capitals at the string-course.

Underneath the fenestration runs a double band of terracotta tiles with alternating floral and quatrefoil motifs in relief, framed by string-courses.  The bottom stage beneath this is now pierced by four domestic square-headed windows which look to have been inserted in the 1970’s to light the rooms now located behind. The whole composition is framed by buttresses with regular string-courses, shallow weatherings and terminal gablets, this the case with all corners.

The west walls of the much lower aisles are each pierced by a pointed doorway, the moulded heads carried on red sandstone nook-shafts with moulded bases and capitals, the upper mouldings continuing as a string-course. 

The nave fenestration is (or was) regular, with two separate lancets in each bay (one in the narrower west bay) with two exceptions for the porches in the south elevation. The original brick porch is located in the eastern half of the eastern bay, and is identical to the doorways in the west aisle walls described above. The middle bay is taken up by the 1970 flat roofed metal-framed porch, painted red in an attempt to match the building. The clearstorey fenestration is regular, with paired lancets in each bay (except the west bay) carrying on the line of the nave buttresses. 

The south transept has a four-light lancet window in the east wall, the outer pair blind. The gable above is pierced by a roundel. The north transept has a stepped three-light lancet window, the side walls are pierced by single lancets. The gables have spiky cross finials, as has the chancel east gable, similar finials above the porch and east nave gable have been lost.

The side walls of the chancel are pierced by a single lancets in the two eastern bays. There are three small stepped lancets high in the east gable above a string-course. Beneath this is the east window of five stepped lancets, the central lancet lower to accommodate a cinquefoil in the head. The three central lights are flanked by slim pilasters which rise from the ground to meet the arch head. Below the window, separated by a string-course is a blind arcade of lancets, and below this again a similar row off four rectangular windows to that in the west nave wall. An apsidal chapel projects from the north transept alongside the chancel. It has a single lancet in each of its faces.

The interior has a very different feel due to the radical division and re-ordering undertaken from 1970.  The orientation has been reversed so that the nave altar, located under an iron corona lucis, now stands on a dais facing east.  The three western bays of the nave and aisles have been blocked off, the space behind appropriated for community use. 

The floors are of woodblock, with green carpet over the altar dais.  This colour is picked up by the panelled bench pews, painted grey and green.  These have been relocated facing the altar in two rows within the two bays of the nave and, rather awkwardly, the transept crossing up three steps. The chancel behind now houses the organ with its pipes displayed on a raised wooden loft with a sacristy room below.

The chapel is painted light grey throughout and provides a small and flexible worship space, accessible through a glass screen separating it from the south transept. 

The walls are generally bare brickwork with the barest use of polychromy to emphasise the clearstorey windows, the aisle walls are painted light grey beneath a dado at window sill height. An unusual feature is a dog-legged internal passage leading from the north transept to the chancel. 

The aisle arcades are carried on piers and pointed arches. The slightly pointed roof of the chancel is arch-braced with a collar; this and the simple arch-braced nave and transept roofs are carried on thin cylindrical pilasters taken down to trumpet corbels with ball-flower termini. The chancel arch and transept arches are taken down to similar clustered brick corbels banded and terminated with stone. There is a blind arcade of pointed arches above the transept arches, and billeting below the wall plates. The aisle roofs are taken down to intermediate waterleaf corbels, no wall-plate, while the chapel roof is taken down to a wall-plate again embellished with billet.