CHAPTER XXIV - Churches
The narrow boundaries of the area described
in this volume have contained very
few places of worship and only two
Anglican churches. Those two, however, are
the works of ecclesiastical architects of the first
rank and display severally the force and the refinement
of the Victorian Gothic school.
St. Augustine's Church, Queen's Gate
Plates 77b, 115, 116, 118b; figs. 98, 99
St. Augustine's owes its inception to a group of
wealthy High Churchmen, presided over by the
Reverend Prebendary W. J. Irons, vicar of Holy
Trinity, Brompton, who in June 1865 offered
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners a 'benefaction'
of £100 per annum 'towards making better
provision for the cure of souls' in a new district to
be called St. Augustine's: the curate at Holy
Trinity, the Reverend R. R. Chope, was to be
the first incumbent. (ref. 1) They were probably hoping
to find a site in the vicinity of Hereford Square,
where a temporary iron church seating four
hundred had already been opened in May, in the
garden of Chope's house at the south corner of
Gloucester Road and Clareville Street. (ref. 2) The
services here were soon to become notorious for
their 'high ritualistic tendency': for one writer
they were 'the nearest approach to Romanism we
have yet witnessed in an Anglican Church . . . if
indeed it be not very Popery itself under the
thinnest guise of the Protestant name'. (ref. 3)
But the committee's proposals failed to gain the
support of the Bishop of London, A. C. Tait,
because he had already accepted an offer from the
builder C. J. Freake to erect a church and parsonage
(later St. Peter's, Cranley Gardens) within
the district now envisaged for St. Augustine's. (ref. 1)
St. Peter's, which was erected in 1866–7, (ref. 4) was
the second church to be built in the vicinity by
Freake, the first having been St. Paul's, Onslow
Square (1859–60), (ref. 5) where the services were low,
while at St. Peter's they were intended to be
high—a fact, probably already known to Bishop
Tait, which made the projected St. Augustine's
all the more superfluous. (ref. 1) There was certainly no
lack of church provision in the neighbourhood,
for in addition to Freake's two churches there was
Holy Trinity itself, and St. Mary's, The Boltons
(built 1849–50), while in Gloucester Road St.
Stephen's was already in prospect (built 1866–7).
Nevertheless the committee for the building of
St. Augustine's deposited a capital sum of
£3,000 in the Bank of England for the maintenance
of the incumbent, while the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners granted a perpetual annuity of
£50 for the endowment, and by December 1866
some £2,000 had also been raised for the building
of the church. (ref. 1) The committee now consisted of a
number of the inhabitants of Queen's Gate and
Princes Gate, including J. D. Chambers,
Recorder of Salisbury, Edward Charrington, the
brewer, and J. G. Hubbard, a Russia merchant
and Member of Parliament. The honorary
treasurer was J. A. Shaw Stewart, who assisted
Gladstone's philanthropic enterprises and played
an active part in the foundation of Keble College,
Oxford, where he was later to be bursar. (ref. 6) Possibly
it was through Shaw Stewart's influence that
William Butterfield was subsequently chosen as
the architect of the new church. An appeal for
more funds was issued, while the immediate
acquisition of a site, 'before property has attained
its maximum value', became the committee's
most urgent task. (ref. 1)
Bishop Tait remained obdurate, however, and
in December 1866 he stated categorically that he
had no intention of ever consenting to the formation
of a district for St. Augustine's which included
any of Freake's property in the vicinity of Onslow
Gardens. (ref. 1) Undeterred, the committee continued
to look for a suitable site, and in June 1867 they
found one, acceptable to Tait, on Captain
Gunter's lands to the west of Hereford Square.
But by August this had been superseded in favour
of a plot 'at the end of Prince Albert's Road' (now
Queen's Gate). The site was provided at his own
expense by Shaw Stewart, who had agreed to buy
half an acre of the Mills' Charity Trustees' land
here for £3,000. The sale did not take place
immediately, probably because Tait objected to
the site, which was in the district of St. Paul's,
Onslow Square, and it was not until after Tait's
elevation to Canterbury early in 1869 that a
district for St. Augustine's was agreed with his
successor. It consisted of some forty acres, and
was formed out of the districts of St. Mary's, The
Boltons, and St. Paul's, despite the protests from
the vicar of the latter, and from Freake himself,
who was both the patron and one of the churchwardens
of St. Paul's. The new district was
gazetted in July 1869, (ref. 1) and in the following
September the site was conveyed to the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners. (ref. 7)
When purchased the site did not have a road
frontage. Queen's Gate at this time terminated
just south of the present intersection with Harrington
Road and Stanhope Gardens, and until its
proposed extension to Old Brompton Road was laid
out, access to the site was to be by way of a new
road or footway which the Charity trustees
undertook to make where Reece Mews is now.
For some reason the plot was aligned to this road
rather than to Queen's Gate where the principal
front was intended (see plan B in end pocket). (ref. 7)
A further appeal for building funds issued not
later than July 1868 shows that William Butterfield
had already been appointed architect of the
new church. (ref. 1) The fund then stood at just over
£2,000, a long way short of the sum needed to
execute Butterfield's designs, which was later
estimated at about £18,000. (ref. 8) St. Augustine's was
accordingly erected in two stages, the nave and
adjoining aisles being built first. Work began in
the summer of 1870 when, it was claimed,
£5,000 of the whole cost had yet to be raised. (ref. 9)
(When the nave was finished, however, more
than half the total cost had still apparently to be
found. (ref. 10) ) The principal contractor was George
Myers and Son: the carver was a Mr. Smith of
Clapham, and Messrs. Hart, Peard and Son made
the ornamental wrought ironwork. (ref. 11) By November
1871 the nave was 'ready for service'. (ref. 12) A few
years later work started on the chancel and east
end, the contractor for this part being Joseph
Norris of Sunningdale, and the first service was
held there on 26 May 1876. (ref. 13) The church was not
consecrated until 20 December 1886, when its
internal embellishment had been largely completed. (ref. 1)
It seated 853 worshippers.
Figure 98:
St. Augustine's Church, Queen's Gate. Pews and
pulpit restored to original positions
The vicarage (No. 117 Queen's Gate), which
stands behind the church, was also designed by
Butterfield, and built by Norris in 1881. (ref. 14)
R. R. Chope, the first incumbent of St.
Augustine's, held the living until his resignation
in 1916, aged eighty-six. By this time the congregation
was 'very attenuated' and the general
condition of the church and parish (the population
of which was even now only 3,200) in some
disarray, further aggravated by acute shortage of
money. In 1917 urgent repairs were made to the
fabric of the church, and again in 1920 after falls
of plaster from the ceiling, much of this work
being supervised by Sir Charles Nicholson. (ref. 1)
Further repairs were carried out in 1954–5 after
the organ had been entirely destroyed by fire. (ref. 15)
The church consists of a five-bay clerestoried
nave with lean-to aisles (the westernmost bay
being narrower than the others), and a two-bay
chancel with one-bay aisles. It is built of bands of
red Suffolk and stock bricks and Bath stone, with blue
Staffordshire bricks and panels of buff-coloured
Pether's patent moulded bricks used for decoration
(Plate 115b). (ref. 11)
Two striking aspects of the exterior are the
contrast in colour and texture between the church
and the adjacent houses, and the oblique alignment
breaking the continuity of the Queen's Gate
frontage (Plates 115a, 118b). Although the first
may have been intentional on Butterfield's part,
the houses were built later than the church, which
stood isolated for some years (see Plate 77b). The
second aspect is largely determined by the dependence
of the site on the line of Reece Mews at the
back, and the narrowness of the site that permitted
no adjustment of the church within it. Butterfield
was involved with the project from an early date
but the siting (unless he was consulted about it)
presumably confronted him with an awkwardness
that he may indeed have relished and took no steps
to alleviate.
For the rectangular west front (Plate 115),
which Charles Eastlake thought 'very peculiar', (ref. 16)
Butterfield's inspiration seems to have been the
great brick churches of northern Germany, and in
particular the Klosterkirche at Chorin. (ref. 17) But the
large gabled bellcote with its two bells, is derived
from medieval examples at Villefranche and other
churches in the vicinity of Toulouse. (ref. 18) Four
prominent gargoyles originally placed at the
corners of the bellcote and two more lower down
on the front have been removed.
The interior has suffered badly from changes
due to the vicissitudes of taste and almost all of
Butterfield's colour scheme is now obliterated by
whitewashing (Plate 116b). (fn. a) One result, perhaps,
has been to emphasize the proportions of the
church which is wide and high, but not particularly
long. In the nave stout columns of alternate layers
of red Mansfield and Bath stone (now painted
white) support bold but simply modelled arcades.
The spandrels are filled with large cusped quatrefoils
containing tile pictures (also painted white),
and over the arches between the quatrefoils are
diaper panels of Pether's bricks. Above the nave
arcading a stone cornice marks the beginning of
the clerestory where the four full bays are each
pierced by coupled lights with cusped heads and a
quatrefoil light over. The narrow west bay has no
clerestory light. The original open-trussed rafter
roof in the nave was boarded-in after the fall of
plaster in 1920. (ref. 1)
At the west end the large central door, divided
by a trumeau, is flanked by two recessed panels
containing glazed tile pictures of the 'Last Supper'
and 'Christ cleansing the Temple', probably
designed by Butterfield and put up in c. 1890.
Above is a shallow gallery carried on four large
stone brackets. The tall west windows consist of a
central two-light opening surmounted by a
quatrefoil flanked by single lights.
Along the aisle walls, which are unfenestrated
except at the west end, there are wide shallow
niches, containing more of Butterfield's glazed tile
pictures, constructed in c. 1890. The pictures
were called 'frightful' in 1920, (ref. 20) and were later
boarded-up, but are now being uncovered.
The low chancel arch supports a considerable
expanse of wall pierced by two pairs of traceried
openings on either side of a marble cross, through
which the chancel ceiling is visible from the nave.
This unusual feature is made possible by the fact
that the nave and chancel roof are at the same level.
The latter has a ribbed ceiling enriched at the east
end. An elaborate metal chancel-screen designed
by Butterfield was erected in front of the arch in
c. 1886 (Plate 116a) but removed in 1928. (ref. 21) At
the same time much of Butterfield's work in the
chancel, including his reredos of inlaid marble and
alabaster, was covered over to accommodate the
present large reredos, designed by Martin Travers
in an inappropriate Baroque style (Plate 116b). (ref. 22)
Figure 99:
Vicarage of St. Augustine's Church, Queen's Gate
The simple dignified sedilia and the tiled
chancel floor are in the manner of the late
thirteenth century.
Apart from the fittings already mentioned
Butterfield designed the font, the pulpit, the lectern,
the original stained glass and the clock (now
in the west gallery). (ref. 23) The glass was made by
Alexander Gibbs, that of the chancel dating from
1876 and the remainder from 1880–6. (ref. 24) Some
still survives in the chancel clerestory. The
stained glass in the west windows was designed by
Martin Travers and made by Laurence Lee in
c. 1928. (ref. 25) The font is made of various marbles
with inlays and consists of a bowl carried on a central
column with eight peripheral colonnettes. Its
wooden cover is surmounted by a carving of the
Pelican in Piety (Plate 116c). The alabaster
pulpit, donated by the parishioners in 1876, was
originally placed beside the chancel arch, but is
now attached to a column one bay to the west. (ref. 26)
It has open traceried sides except under the
preacher's desk where a vesica-shaped panel contains
a crucifixus surmounted by an angel. The
tester is an addition.
Under the chancel is a basement-room, approached
from the north aisle, where the richly
coloured vaulted brickwork, carried on one central
column, gives a hint of the original appearance of
the church itself.
Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road
In the 1890's blocks of expensive flats were rising
in the northern part of the area described in this
volume, and at that time more seemed likely to be
built on vacant sites in Prince Consort Road. In
1899, therefore, it was decided to establish a new
church in that road to replace Holy Trinity,
Knightsbridge, and to be financed in part by the
sale of the site of that church. (ref. 27) The vicar of
Holy Trinity, Knightsbridge, H. B. Coward,
was active in getting the new church built and
became its first vicar. There was some opposition—the authorities of Holy Trinity, Brompton, for
example, thought that 'the small, well-to-do
population near the Albert Hall' did not need a
church of its own—and Coward was disappointed
with the contributions from 'the millionaires in
the district, of whom there are many'. (ref. 28) But although
the slow accumulation of funds retarded
the work it was not allowed to lessen significantly
the richness and refinement of the architect's
aspiration. He was G. F. Bodley (1827–1907),
whose last major work in London this was (Plate
117; fig. 100).
The site extends north to south and therefore
required that the church should not be conventionally
oriented. Containing just over 12,000
square feet, the site was bought from the 1851
Exhibition Commissioners by the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners for £6,000 in August 1901, (ref. 28) and
in the same year Bodley exhibited at the Royal
Academy his preliminary design, which was
published as 'an important church' in The Building
News. (ref. 29) The foundation stone was laid in
December. (ref. 30)
The population of the proposed parish was
thought to be about 2,500, (ref. 28) but Coward anticipated
a population of some four or five thousand
'when all the existing flats and dwelling houses are
occupied, and all the vacant land built over', and
the church was designed to hold about 800 worshippers.
The church as built differs a little from
the original design, particularly in the omission of
a chancel screen, but conforms generally to the
announcement made in 1901 that 'the character
will be that of a town Church in the style and
manner of the 14th century. It will be strictly
English in conception and in detail, treated in a
broad and somewhat original manner ... The
edifice will be an example of our beautiful
English Gothic architecture when it was at its
best.' (ref. 31) The whole site was to be built over, and
the windowless 'south' wall that resulted makes
the interior even more like that of a 'town' rather
than a suburban church. (fn. b)
The nave, chancel and 'south' aisle were built
first, by Stephens, Bastow and Company of
Bristol, and this part of the contract amounted
to some £20,100. (ref. 30) The fabric was sufficiently
complete for consecration in October 1903. (ref. 28) A
consolidated chapelry was assigned to the church
in January 1904. (ref. 32)
The two 'north' aisles, including a side chapel,
were built by William Saint and Company of
Cambridge at a contract price of £5,500, and
were consecrated in October 1906. (ref. 30)
The structural fabric, all faced externally in
Bath-stone ashlar, was complete, together with
some fittings, by the time of Bodley's death in
October 1907. The total cost to that date had
been some £35,200. (ref. 30) Despite the fact that
Coward could report to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners
that his parish contained 'no poor' (ref. 28) it
had required some effort to maintain the cashflow:
in fact, the organ-builder told him 'your
fine church is a standing monument to your
genius for finance'. (ref. 33)
The furniture and fittings were incomplete.
Bodley's altar, pulpit and chancel stalls were in
place, made by Rattee and Kett of Cambridge, (ref. 34)
but the great reredos of Bodley's designing
remained to be provided in 1911–12 (at a cost of
some £1,100) as a memorial to him (Plate 117b). (ref. 35)
The organ case, to house the instrument recently
built by Brindley and Foster and enlarged by them
on its removal from the Knightsbridge church, (ref. 36)
was made by Rattee and Kett in 1908–11. The
design is said to have been by Bodley's former
assistant, Cecil Hare, who carried on the work in
the church after Bodley's death, and to have been
approved by Bodley: but a design by the latter was
in existence, (ref. 30) and was presumably in essentials
that executed. (The organ was rebuilt by Rushworth
and Dreaper of Liverpool in 1958–9.) The
chancel panelling was erected in 1908–14, that
on the 'north' side at least, with the bishop's
throne, being (like the organ screen of 1911)
designed by Hare and made by Rattee and Kett. (ref. 37)
The parclose screen was erected in 1911–12.
The three stone angels on the piers of the inner
'north' aisle were carved (for some £95) by
Farmer and Brindley in 1906. (ref. 38) The painting
over the 'east' window was executed, like the
ceilings of the vestry, sacristy and parish hall, by
F. A. Jackson of Ealing to Hare's design. (ref. 39)
Bodley left a design for this window, (ref. 30) which was
made in 1909 by Burlison and Grylls for £880,
and presumably this was used, although Hare was
paid for the design. (ref. 40) The 'east' window of the
Lady Chapel was installed by Burlison and Grylls,
to Bodley's design, in 1907. (ref. 41) The 'west' window
was installed as a war memorial in 1925 by the
same firm to Harry Grylls's design. (ref. 42)
In the years c. 1956–64 some of the woodwork
was repainted (Lady Chapel reredos 1956, pulpit
1964, both by Campbell, Smith and Company),
and a general restoration carried out.
Designed in the Gothic style of the fourteenth
century, the church consists of a five-bay nave
and lean-to aisles, with an extra four-bay aisle on
the liturgical north side; a chancel, the choir of
which occupies the 'easternmost' bay of the nave;
and a Lady Chapel to the 'north' of the chancel,
situated in the 'eastern' bay of the lean-to aisle.
The tall, gabled 'west' front is divided into four
distinct elements (Plate 117a). The first of these is
the dominant wall of the nave, pierced by a small
doorway over which is a huge traceried window
flanked by two pairs of superimposed niches of
predominantly Flemish style, and crowned by a
gabled double bellcote. The second and third are
the two 'west' walls of the aisles, marked off from
the nave by tall gabled buttresses, and pierced by
small doorways above which are traceried windows.
Over each of the doors is a small niche. The
fourth element is the 'west' wall of the extra
'north' aisle: its traceried window is placed low to
light the font. The wall on the 'north' side of the
church is divided into bays by gabled buttresses, is
pierced by large traceried windows, and is
crowned with a battlemented parapet.
Figure 100:
Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road
The exterior is a preparation for the arrangement
of the interior, but hardly for the richness
and architectural quality of this beautiful church
(Plate 117d). The very refined stone arcades,
consisting of tall, slender columns, quatrefoil on
plan, support pointed arches carrying the nave
roof. The latter has a pointed barrel-vault that
continues uninterruptedly over the chancel. The
moulded ribs are coloured crimson, with black and
yellow decorations, while the panels are painted
cream, enriched with repetitive stylized motifs in
crimson. The opening words of the Te Deum are
inscribed in black and crimson Gothic lettering
immediately above the springing of the wooden
vault over the sanctuary and choir.
The chancel itself is illuminated by a tall,
finely proportioned 'east' window with curvilinear
tracery filled with exquisite glass, and by windows
on either side, piercing the 'north' and 'south' walls
of the sanctuary. On each side of the 'east'
window are two crocketed niches containing
statues of saints.
The climax of the church is undoubtedly the
altar and reredos (Plate 117b). The frontal is
decorated with five panels surrounded by both
naturalistic and stylized foliage containing representations
of the four Evangelists on either side of
a central panel depicting the displayed Crown of
Thorns surmounted by a crown. The reredos is
exceptionally ornate, and is mostly gilded, with
green, blue, and red colouring. The centre panel
contains a Crucifixion of moving intensity set
between figures of Our Blessed Lady and St. John
the Evangelist. The lower panels depict the
Nativity and the Annunciation, sensitively carved.
The lower panels of the folding doors of the
reredos contain angels in low relief, those on the
upper panels being the guardian angels of the four
Kingdoms of Britain and those of the lower
bearing musical instruments.
The parclose screen dividing the Lady Chapel
from the choir, the choir stalls, and the screen
under the organ-loft in the 'easternmost' bay of the
'south' aisle, are all of carved oak, in the late fourteenth-century
Gothic manner. The organ-case
itself owes much to Dutch Renaissance examples,
with sparing Gothic detail. The panelling of the
organ-loft is of the linenfold type, and here the
emphasis of style tends towards the late fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries, so giving the interior
in some measure the appearance of accretion over
a long period.
The Lady Chapel is illuminated by finely
traceried 'east' and 'north' windows filled with
elegant stained glass. The reredos is not nearly
so successful as that behind the High Altar, the
detail being somewhat unsubtle and flat.
A constructional feature of this church that is
worth noting is the series of stone arches used as
abutments above the lean-to aisles. These help to
support the nave walls over the very high and
slender arcades. Even deeper abutments are provided
at each bay over the outer 'north' aisle. The
latter has traceried windows at high level, set
above six blind panels with cusped heads. Each
window consists of six lights set under curvilinear
tracery. The 'south' aisle has blind walls relieved
by wide arches, one to each bay. Evidently further
structural precautions were necessary over the
nave, for metal tie-bars are provided above the
arcading.
The arches of the nave end in thick piers
abutting against the 'west' wall, and flanking the
door and window. The latter contains stained
glass commemorating the fallen of the war of
1914–18. On either side of this window are
single niches set over a stringcourse above the
door.
There are doors to each lean-to aisle, and the
'west' ends of the aisles are pierced by traceried
lights. The roof of the outer 'north' aisle is flat
and panelled, painted in dark colours, with gilding.
The roofs of the lean-to aisles are painted crimson,
with yellow and black arrowheads on the rafters,
and texts emblazoned at wall-plate level, influenced
no doubt by the colouring of St. Jacques
at Liège.
Set under the 'east' window on the wall of the
outer 'north' aisle is a curious and highly successful
monument to Bodley designed in 1910 by his
pupil E. P. Warren in the Jacobean manner.
Made by L. A. Turner, of alabaster and red and
black marble, it is basically an aediculated niche,
containing a bust of Bodley in academic robes by
T. Murphy, junior. It must be regarded as a
major Edwardian work in the genre of Jacobean
pastiche. (The cost was some £265.) (ref. 43)
Among other fittings, the magnificent brass
chandeliers in the chancel must be mentioned.
The pulpit of 1904 contains representations of the
four Doctors of the Latin Church within its
panels. The font, by Bodley, is of stone, with a
wooden cover of 1962 designed by John Haywood.
In many ways, Holy Trinity Church is a
vision of the fourteenth-century Decorated style
brought to its fullest development, and is without
doubt one of Bodley's finest works.
The Hyde Park Chapel of the Mormon
Church, Exhibition Road
This church, built of reinforced concrete with
Portland stone facing, was designed by T. P.
Bennett and Son and dedicated in 1961. It
occupies the site of the former Nos. 64–68
Princes Gate. The general contractors were
McLaughlin and Harvey. The main body of the
building is four storeys high with a six-storey tower
at its north end. A thin spire rises from the west
face of the tower. Beneath this spire is a stained
glass window designed by Pierre Fourmaintraux
and made in the Whitefriars Studio. At the time of
the opening the supervising architect of the building
committee in Salt Lake City attributed the use
of a 'contemporary' design here and in other recent
Mormon churches to 'spiralling construction
costs'. The total cost, including land and furnishings,
was £330,000. (ref. 44)
The use of modern materials and techniques is
also evident in the interior, where many varied
functions are ingeniously provided for in the
planning. The ground floor, which is of doublestorey
height, consists principally of the chapel
and a 'cultural' or 'recreation' hall, divided by
folding partitions. At mezzanine level is a 'cry
gallery' for children, and in the upper storeys are
accommodated a children's chapel, a boy scouts'
meeting-room and some eighteen classrooms.