All Souls Langham Place: Pray for the BBC

 

 

"Pray for the BBC: Corporation staff offered sanctuary in church next to New Broadcasting House"

All Souls, Langham Place is probably most famous as "The church next to the BBC". Designed by John Nash, and opened in 1824, its spire and rotunda-like base act as a knuckle, linking the disjointed axes of Regent Street and Langham Place, part of George IV's development of a grand route to his new Regent's Park. The body of the church therefore sits at a bit of an awkward angle to the tour-de-force. Spires are ultimately a gothic creation, but they remained popular throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries. Everyone from Wren and Hawksmoor to Soane and Dance tried collections of elements, such as colonnades, mini porticoes or massive columns, to produce the effect of a gothic spire but in the classical taste. At All Souls, Nash's solution was a cone surrounded with two tiers of columns arranged in rings.

The church's prominence at then s-shaped junction has over the past 190 years been challenged by increasing building heights, and the creation of Broadcasting House in the 1930s and New Broadcasting House in the 2000s.

Next time you are are at Oxford Circus, look North at its spire and columns.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/pray-for-the-bbc-corporation-staff-offered-sanctuary-in-church-next-to-new-broadcasting-house-8313151.html

St Mary & All Saints, Fotheringhay

Fotheringhay's magnificent perpendicular parish church stands on the banks of the Nene, like a ship about to set sail from the hills of Northamptonshire through the fens, with its octagonal lantern and flying buttresses. It is in fact just a relic of the days when Fotheringhay was a royal manor. The mighty but long demolished castle was a stronghold of the Yorkists, birthplace of Richard III, and most famously the site of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. 

The church as we see it today is the surviving nave of a much larger collegiate foundation. It was built mostly in the 1430s by Edward III and is remarkably all as one piece, something rare in English ecclesiastical architecture. The bright and elegant perpendicular tracery abruptly ends in a flat wall where once the building continued to form the chancel. To the south were the associated buildings for the college of canons, and today this is visible from the blocked arches in the South East corner of the church. The entire ensemble was intended as a great monument to the House of York. Despite being constructed of beautiful local limestone, it was originally rendered and painted white which would have given it an even more striking appearance.

The church has a wonderful collection of gargoyles along the outside of the clerestory including one of a squatting man exposing his bum!

After the Dissolution, its college was closed and demolished. Eventually the chancel collapsed and Elizabeth I had memorials to her ancestors moved into the nave. The castle experienced a steady decline through the 17th Century and today only the mound exists. The village, which has other remains of mediaeval buildings, went from Royal Town to sleepy hamlet, with less than 200 inhabitants today.

http://www.oundledeanery.org.uk/parishes/fotheringhay

The Fan Vault in the West Tower

Radicalism Thwarted by Health & Safety? Newington Green Unitarian Chapel

Stoke Newington has a long history of religious dissent and radicalism. It has been noted as a centre for Congregationalism, Quakerism, Judaism, and more recently lesbianism! Abney Park Cemetery, for example, was designed as a model of an ecumenical burial ground. Newington Green is home to London's oldest surviving nonconformist place of worship, a Unitarian Church. Former attendees include early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and republican Dr Richard Price.

Political, as well as religious dissent have long been hallmarks of this simple stuccoed chapel, and its radicalism continues. The church applied to hold Civil partnerships, making it London's first religious building legally allowed to do so. But whilst religious marriage can be held in any religious building, venues for Civil partnerships must have a health and safety audit. The early 18th Century chapel has only one fire escape, so apparently cannot get a licence for Civil Partnerships.  Revd. Andy Pakula said of the decision “I guess gay people must generate more heat than straight ones. It’s a list of pretty trivial things to wait the best part of a year for”.

Once the church meets the requirements, it will potentially reach another landmark in its long and illustrious history.

http://www.new-unity.org/

http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2012/11/church-denied-same-sex-civil-partnership-licence/

All Saints & St Peter, Aldwincle

The broach spire of St Peter's, Aldwincle

The small village of Aldwincle in North Northamptonshire, by some quirk of history, has two parishes and therefore two parish churches. One, St Peters, stands in the centre of the village and is noted for its broach spire, one of the "most perfect" examples. St Peters exhibits a range of gothic features from the 12th to the 15th century, and is very much the typical parish church. it is surrounded by a graveyard, overlooking cottages, with an interior dominated by its Victorian restoration. Think plush carpets and cross-stitch hassocks.

The nave and chancel

Mediaeval Stained Glass and a Green Man

The early C20th rood screen

At the East end of the village, as one heads to the broad valley of the Nene, is the second church, All Saints. The first features one notices is the great perpendicular tower, a stark contrast to St Peter's spire. The church was declared redundant in the 1970s, and since then has been preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust, seemingly in a state of partial decay. Fragments of wall paintings and old plasterwork against areas of exposed stone. The roof, dated to the 17th century, is raw and simple. An extravagant perpendicular chantry chapel sits to the South-East, facing the Manor House. To the North is the birthplace of the village's most famous former resident; the post John Dryden who's father was the rector of All Saints.

All Saints Church from the South

The Nave, showing remains of wall painting and the 17th century roof timbers

The Perpendicular South Chapel

http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/Ourchurches/Completelistofchurches/All-Saints-Church-Aldwincle-Northamptonshire/

8,500 Poppies laid at Hull's Holy Trinity church in 'Trench' tribute for Remembrance Day

More than 8,500 poppies have been laid out in a church to mark Remembrance Day.

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/8-500-poppies-laid-Hull-s-Holy-Trinity-church/story-17209027-detail/story.html

St Mary's, Saffron Walden

Saffron Walden church is one of the finest in Essex. Like many other towns in East Anglia, it's wealth peaked in the 15th century as a wool town, exporting cloth to the continent. In those days, wool was big business. There was no cotton, and no polyester. Wool was essential. And English wool had a reputation for being the finest.

In earlier periods, Wool had made Northamptonshire wealthy, and later it brought prosperity to The Cotswolds. The richest church architecture of each period is often closely linked to the region's dominance in the wool trade.

The townsfolk of Saffron Walden built a church which reflected this wealth. Mostly perpendicular, it has a high embattled tower, with a recessed spire. The body of the church is broad and high with wide aisles and a grand clerestory.

 

To this day, the spire and the clerestory tower over the Mediaeval, Georgian and Victorian buildings of the town, which is famed for its beauty.

http://www.stmaryssaffronwalden.org/

The last days of English summer

This weekend I visited Alfriston, in the South Downs. On the Vernal Equinox, the last day of summer. The weather was hot and sunny. We picnicked. We sat in beer gardens. We walked without jumpers or coats.

The church of St Andrew stands on a mound overlooking "The Tye", the village green. Adjacent is the Clergy House which was the first National Trust property. The church is one of a number of English parish churches which have been given a cathedral epithet (cf. Tideswell, Louth, Cirencenster). St Andrew's is known as the cathedral of the Downs. But this church is pure parochialism. Vernacular externally, simple internally. Flint walls, red tiles, squat little spire, limewashed interior.
I also visited the old Congregational Chapel, now united with the CofE church. The Georgian chapel retains galleries on three sides.

The village sits between high rolling hills of the South Downs, next to the meandering River Cuckmere. The place is a bit of a tourist honeypot, with tea rooms, antique shops and three historic pubs.

And now for the long, cold decent into winter.

Maastricht Dominican Church Bookshop

One of my favourite conversions has to be Maastricht's Dominican Church which is now a bookshop. The great gothic nave was neglected for much of the 20th century, at times being used as a bike shed (a certain Pevsner quote comes to mind). In 2008 it was converted into a book shop, in a striking way with black shelves lining the nave and aisles.



The new additions do not attempt to blend into the background, and therefore it is immediately obvious what has been added. it is reversible, and the mew use reflects both the serenity of church interiors, and the way in which churches were historically vital for education, getting information, and socialising.

The Guardian newspaper even named it the best bookshop in the world!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jan/11/bestukbookshops

The Most Enigmatic Church In England? Fairfield, Kent

LOCATION
Isolated on a marsh in southern Kent

CONSTRUCTION

Thoroughly vernacular. Oak timber frame internally, cased in black and red flemish bond brickwork. Weatherboarded tower. Red tiled roof with a steep pitch and overhanging eaves.

INTERIOR
Open to the roof. Timbers exposed like a mediaeval Great Hall. All mellow and silver. Low beams. The chancel is almost entirely separated from the nave.



FURNISHINGS

Georgian box pews and a three decker pulpit, so beloved by architectural historians. All painted white. Simple black boards with gold painted religious texts.

St Dunstan In The East

The church was repaired after the Great Fire in 1666. Wren constructed a new tower. The church was largely rebuilt between 1817 and 1821. It was bombed during WWII and the ruins were preserved as a public garden. Today it is incredibly serene, and the vine covered tracery make it a gothic fantasy in a sea of late 20th Century office buildings.

360 Degree View of Liverpool Roman Catholic Cathedral

This morning I found a fantastic 360 interior view of Frederick Gibberd's much celebrated Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool. It captures some of the beauty of the stained glass, and the sense of drama it creates. The forceful concrete exterior contrasts beautifully with the interior, whose design was strongly influenced by the decisions of the Second Vatican Council.

Compared to the other great Mid-20th Century British cathedral, Coventry, it is interesting to see how different and dramatic the treatment of the fenestration has brought to the building, with Coventry's clear glass 'West' End (actually South) arguably making it dominate the interior, rather than focusing one on the alter. Also interesting is the different ways in which pre-mediaeval elements of ecclesiastical buildings, such as chapels, choirs and fonts are incorporated into modern liturgy.

The radical decisions of Vatican II mark the greatest difference between the form and progression through these buildings, and each is beautifully juxtaposed by a more senior neighbour. In Coventry, this is the ruined St Michael with its magnificent steeple, and of Liverpool it is Giles Gilbert Scott's Anglican Cathedral which, despite being Victorian in origin wasn't completed until eleven years after its "newer" catholic neighbour.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/interactive/2011/sep/11/liverpool-roman-catholic-cathedral-360-interactive-panoramic

Some Old Photos of St Mary Woolnoth

Here are some lovely old photos I found of St Mary Woolnoth.

St Mary Woolnoth is one is one of my favourite City Churches. A miniature masterpiece. Hawksmoor buildings always seem so striking and original, and the tower of St Mary's could easily be mistaken for having been built two centuries later. It always seems so forgotten, for such a prominently located church, unlike many of Wren's churches which lurk down mediaeval passages. These photos appear to date from the 1960s, judging by the cars. Please note the effect of cleaning. I know dirt is bad for stone, and I know we all like to see bright shiny white buildings, but I still think the grime adds so much. It makes the whole composition stand out, and seem like a grand old lady that has looked down on Lombard Street since the days of hansom cabs.

http://stml.org.uk/

Some City Churches

London’s famous city churches are a remnant of an era when the City was still a crowded maze of all echelons of society. Today they stand tucked away down alleyways, or with just a gable wall or a tower facing streets which, though crammed from eight till seven, Monday to Friday, are vacant the rest of the time. For me, one of the most evocative characteristics about the churches are their names. Long forgotten saints, or curiosities from the middle-ages bush against the forefront of modern business. St Vedast Foster Lane. St Mary Aldermary. St Andrew-By-The-Wardrobe.

St Mary Le Bow is a church whose name is far more famous than its image. Millions of Londoners have heard of the church, yet most couldn’t find it on a map, or wouldn’t recognize its graceful spire that dominates any view of Cheapside, from St Paul’s to the Bank of England. It is blessed with a great vestibule which helps shield the sounds of buses and taxis from the body of the church. Entering from the north, one is struck by the great volume of the space. It is high, and it is gilded and painted like an Austrian Baroque interior. Well, not quite that lavish. This is England after all. The keystones, replaced after damage during the Second World War, are lovely carvings of key people to the church. The vicar at the time, complete with horn-rimed spectacles, looks down into his church.

St Mary Woolnoth is a little gem. Externally, it is surprisingly prominent. Hawksmoor was always one for doing his own thing, and the steeple here is undoubtedly one of the most distinctive in the city. It’s a shame that the Victorian and Edwardian baroque office buildings which now surround it have copied so much of its detail and texture that this most idiosyncratic construction seems to blend in. Internally, it is essentially a cube. Lit from above, the east wall feels so close as you enter.  The Jacobean woodwork, dark and heavy, seems quite at odds with the gracious white columns and beautiful plasterwork. The galleries were, like in so many other churches, removed in Victorian times and their fronts stuck to the side walls, so we cannot fully appreciate the original design. It doesn’t have the peace or extravagance of St Mary Le Bow, but it feels much more ‘London’.

St Clements Eastcheap definitely feels like a poor relation. Externally, when viewed from King William Street, it has neither the prominence or seclusion which make the city churches hidden gems or landmarks of the streetscape. St Clements is dirty and a bit battered, like all the city churches were a hundred years ago before the finance companies and guilds gave so generously. It’s crowning claim to fame has been stolen from it- Oranges & Lemons. The ‘other’ St Clements, St Clement Danes in The Strand has usurped the title (supposedly). Internally something very beautiful stands in front of you as you enter from the west under the organ. The font. Carved within the font cover is a little marble dove. Dirty and a bit worn, like the whole of the church. The reredos is by Comper, and the blitz smashed the supposedly not very lovely 19^th century stained glass. The church is a simple box, with one aisle to the south. It is oddly wedge shaped and has not features of merit except a removed balcony. The whole church is a bit sad and disappointing really, and that’s what makes it wonderful. It’s not a star. It doesn’t make it onto lists of great buildings or tourist trails. It isn’t serene or grandiose. It isn’t quaint. It’s just a church really. And that’s the remarkable thing.

The city churches are wonderful because they are so similar, yet so varied. They are so famous collectively, yet so forgotten individually. They are so densely packed that one can stumble across three or four in a single street.  They are surprisingly empty too.  

Stained Glass- Great Malvern Priory

Here are just a few photos of the beautiful stained glass at Great Malvern priory. In more ways than one, this beautiful church is overshadowed by the Malvern Hills, but it deserves more attention. Simon Jenkins ranks the glass here as third in the country after Ludlow and Fairford.

Materiality & Locality- Holy Trinity, Hull

That old churches are usually hewn from the rock that surrounds them can be a blessing and a curse. The creamy limestone of the Cotswolds form not only the rolling hills, but also the finely cut tracery of its churches. The flatlands of Norfolk, whose ground yields only flint has resulted in a legacy of ancient round towers.

Britain’s underlying geology generally sweeps across the country in diagonal bands, and the vernacular styles match these swathes from southwest to northeast. Bands of  cold granite, fine timberwork, crumbling sandstone towers, crisp limestone detailing, giving rise to local vernaculars that disregard administrative boundaries.

Hull, located distant from good stone, but economically close to Flanders, and the Hanseatic Cities, is blessed with wonderful early brickwork in Holy Trinity Church. Today, many of us overlook brick as the building material of bland mass-production in Victorian times. But this is claimed to be earliest use of brick in a major British building since Roman times.

Holy Trinity claims to be the largest parish church. I wouldn’t wish to get too caught up in superlatives, but it is bloody massive. Not cathedral scale, like Tewkesbury or Sherborne, but a big town church. It benefitted from being founded as a chapel of ease, meaning that it had no graveyard. These green oases can so often isolate a great church from the surrounding streets. Holy Trinity pushed East to the busy road, and on all other sides fills the square of old Hull that still skirts it. It never dominates. Post-war planning shifted the heart of the city to Queen Victoria Square. The Old Town was left. For a city with such a dreadful reputation, the Old Town is surprisingly quaint in places. And Hull still has many rewarding civic buildings. If, like me, you love the derelict industrialisation of inner city Britain, walk north along Wincolmlee. Adjacent to the River Hull are enormous old grain stores and factories and bridges and railways and walls, meandering.

East Yorkshire overlooks Holy Trinity Church in favour of Beverley’s two masterpieces, and Heddon, and Howden, and Patrington. At the heart of Britain’s “worst city” stands a landmark to Hull’s ancient origins.