Author: man-thinking

blog | St Agnes Kennington

Destroyed by the diocese of Southwark after some war damage.

South London’s Anglican parish of St Agnes Kennington was established in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The location of St Agnes Kennington, London UK
The route of Stane Street

The church sits alongside the green space of Kennington Park, formerly Kennington Common, which is an ancient site of executions and political rallies. The nearby Kennington Park Road follows the line of the ancient Roman Road of Stane Street that runs for 90 kms from London Bridge to the south-coast port city of Chichester (Roman Noviomagus Reginorum).

The current building (1957-58) was designed by Ralph Covell (1911–88) – also the church organist –  and was consecrated by the Bishop of Southwark  on 24 May 1958. It replaced an earlier building.

St Agnes Kennington, London. The chancel.
St Agnes Kennington Park, London. West end.
St Agnes Kennington, London. The south side.
St Agnes Kennington Park, London. West end.

The earlier church building was designed by the great Victorian architect  George Gilbert-Scott Jnr. (1839-97) and consecrated by the Bishop of London on 20 January 1877. 

St Agnes Kennington, London. The original church, prior to demolition, 1951.
St Agnes Kennington, London. Design (1975) by George Gilbert Scott Jnr. [Source Alamy Stock Photos https://www.alamy.com/%5D

The rapidly developing  district it served was taken out of the parish of St. Paul Lorrimore Square. Along side the church Gilbert-Scott also designed a vicarage and a school. The site – given by the Church Commissioners – had previously been occupied by a vitriol factory established by a Richard Farmer about 1796 in what were then open fields.

St Agnes Kennington, London, UK. The nave looking towards the chancel screen (1898). [Source. RIBA 58067]
St Agnes Kennington, London, UK. The nave looking towards the chancel screen (1898). [Source. RIBA 58067]
According to British History Online the building was designed in a 14th-century Decorated style, using Bath stone dressings. The unusually lofty nave rose to about 60 feet. A most imposing feature of the church was the six-light chancel window, 40 feet high, with stained glass designed and executed by C. E. Kempe (1837–1907). Over the chancel screen was a loft, intended to be utilized for an orchestra on the occasion of high festivals, surmounted by an arched beam and massive cross. Many of the internal fittings  were completed by Scott’s pupil Temple Moore (1856–1920).

Interior of St Agnes Kennington c.1890. [Source: Architectural Review 5 (1898-99) 63]
Interior of St Agnes Kennington c.1890. [Source: Architectural Review 5 (1898-99) 63]
This church was demolished after the Second World War following minor aerial bomb damage. A campaign  to save the magnificent building from demolition was one of several heritage ‘causes célèbres’ championed by the poet laureate Sir John Betjeman (1906-84), but in this case to no avail. Writing in The Spectator magazine (30 September 1955, p.14) he said of St Agnes Kennington

Despite representations from famous architects, such as Sir Ninian Comper, from the Central Council for the Care of Churches and from the Royal Fine Art Commission, the Bishop of Southwark is going to pull down St. Agnes, Ken- nington, and build a smaller church on its site. St. Agnes was designed in 1877 by George Gilbert Scott, Jnr., the father of Sir Giles, and it has long been thought the finest work of the Gothic Revival in South London, and one of the finest in England. No financial arguments can really excuse this vandalism, nor is it true that the parish lacks parishioners. Most of the fittings of the church survive, and the architect appointed to repair it after the war, Mr. Stephen Dykes Bower, resigned from his post rather than agree to the destruction of a building which could perfectly well be repaired.

Later, in his Collins guide to the parish churches of England and Wales (Collins: London, 1958) – a book he dedicated to the memory of St Agnes Kennington – Betjeman noted tersely that the building was  “destroyed by the diocese of Southwark after some war damage.“

A number of the fittings by Temple Moore were inlcuded in the new St Agnes’s cbhurch e.g. the chancel screen and loft (1885–89), reredos (1891), font canopy (1893), and choir stalls (1902). Some other furnishings were obtained by the architect Stephen Dykes Bower (1903–94) for use in his c.1956 rebuilding of the Chiurch of The Holy Sprirt, Southsea (UK).

The pipe organ

The earliest mention of an organ in St Agnes Kennington comes from the British Organ Archive (Boa-ref=7656), which names the firm of Gray and Davidson as the builder. The earliest description of what was probably that organ comes from 1886.

In St Agnes Kennington there is a small organ; it is splendidly placed on the loft above the screen. […] Though more diversified effect could be produced with a larger instrument it suffices for its purpose, and no one would believe that it has only an 8ft. pedal stop and about six others on one manual. […] Raise the organ high up on a wooden floor, give it plenty of room to speak, and a comparatively small instrumnet will do a s much duty as a large one. (‘On Church Organs’ by “Church Times” in Musical Opinion 10/111 (1 December 1886) 114-5)

Another description is found in the Proceeedings of the Musical Association 1880-90.

We find ourselves in a good-sized parish church […]  high aisles, no chancel arch or break inthe levels between east and west. A shallow transept of the full height of the church projects north and south immediately at the entrance to the chancel. At this point the church is crossed by a high screen, with a loft on it. A small organ stands just in the north transept on the loft, and having plenty of space about it, tells with good effect. It is, indeed, far more effective than most organs three times its size put into the regulation rat hole.” (p.155)

On 5 June 1890 a St Agnes Organ Fund committee was established, the Duke of Newcastle among its members. Its aim was to replace the organ of 7 stops – reportedly acquired second-hand 14 years previously from a neighbouring parish – with a new organ divided between the north and south ends of the chancel screen, in accordance with the architect’s intentions and at a cost estimated to be £1500. [Parish Magazine Xi/7 July 1890]

St Agnes Kennington, London, UK. The pipe organ specification in 1893. [Source: Musical Opinion, 1 ix 1893]

By September 1893 the new organ was in place above the chancel screen and the specification was published in the Musical Opinion (see image). A descriptive account of the instrument (below) together with a photograph of the console appeared in the May 1899 issue of the St Agnes parish magazine.. (Vol XX/5 36-38) [LMA P92/AGN048]), as follows:

Console of the pipe organ by Brindley and Foster in St Agnes Kennington, London. (UK). [Source: Parish Magazine, May 1899, p. 37)
Console of the pipe organ by Brindley and Foster in St Agnes Kennington, London. (UK). [Source: Parish Magazine, May 1899, p. 37)

The organ contains twenty [sic] speaking stops, seven couplers, three pneumatic pistons to Great, four pneumatic pistons to Swell, three composition pedals to Great and four to Swell, and, on and off, Great to Pedal and a pedal to bring down Swell reeds onto Choir manual. The diapason work on the Great Organ is on the largest scale. The large Open Diapason is placed on the south side, the lower octaves forming the front, while the small Open Diapason forms the front of the north side.

The Great Organ contains nine stops. The “Rohr Flute” is a very useful stop. It is made of metal, although in tone would lead one to believe that it was a wooden stop. The 4ft “Harmonic Flute”brightens the whole tone of the Great Organ. The “Posaune” is also an effective 8ft reed.

The principle stops of the Peadal Organ are on the south side, viz. the 16 “Bourdon,” 16ft”Open Diapason” (an excellent example of Brindley & Foster’s  fine diapason work), and a 16ft “Trombone,” making with the 8ft “Cello”and echo “Bourdon”(which are on the north side) a very fine Pedal Organ.

The Swell Box, of ample proportion, is placed on the north side and is acted upon by vertical venetian shutters. It contains eleven stops and a “Tremulant.” The Solo reed stops, the “Orchestral Clarionet” and the “Orchestral Oboe” are very charming in quality.

The Choir Organ contains four very useful stops.

The whole Organ is built on the “Tubular Pneumatic” principal, upwards of forty miles of metal tubing having been used for the action. Its is blown by hand, two bellows on the screen, and a reservoir high up in the roof of the South Transept. […] All the organ now wants is a handsome case.

In 1901 the organ was cleaned and overhauled by the firm of Brindley and Foster at a cost of £32, chiefly to allow the organ to be used with “much less noise.” (Parish Magazine January 1902, p. 11. [LAMp92/AGN/053]). It is not clear exactly what was the problem.

In 1911 a new case was provided by Temple L. Moore (1856–1920) the designer of the screen on which the organ stood.

St Agnes Kennington, organ case (1911 by T. L. Moore), north side c.1921. [Source: University of Birmingham Special collections Freeman/452]
St Agnes Kennington, chancel screen (1885-9) by T. L. Moore, looking north-east c.1921. [Source: University of Birmingham Special collections Freeman/453]

There is currently no detail about whose job it was actually to hand-pump the organ but by 1912 the organ was described as “blown by electric motors.” (Dictionary of Organs and Organists by Frederick W. Thornsby. London, 1912).

In 1926 the organ was moved to a west gallery and then was eventually broken up as the church was prepared for demolition after the Second World War.

The pipe organ we find in the church today was newly installed in the west gallery in 1960 by the firm of N. P. Mander Ltd. (now Mander Organs). The opening recital – on Thursday 16 February 1961, 8pm – was given by the then organist of Westminster Abbey Sir William Mckie (1901–84) – formerly assistant organist of St Agnes Kennington, 1921-27. Also performing was Harry Barnes (1909–85) a singer from the Westminster Abbey choir. (Musical Times, Feb 1961, p. 106). The same organ is heard here (2016) played by the composer Matt Geer who is also the resident organist.

Organists

  • 1880. Choirmaster. Mr Powell. [Parish Magazine, 1/i Jan. 1880]
  • 1880-99. Organist and Choirmaster. Willim Hedgecock (1864-1932) [The Musical Times (MT) 73/1075 (1932) 848] / [Thoresby’s Dictionary of Organs and Organists (1912 ) 286] [Parish Magazine, 1/v May1880. Paid in 1882: £71 13s 4d. [Parish Magazine 3/v May1882]. He was also a Professor at Gulldhall School of Music, and Director of Music at Crystal Palace.
St Agnes Kennington, London. Organist recruitment advert. 'Musical Times' 30/671 (1899) 55
St Agnes Kennington, London. Organist recruitment advert. ‘Musical Times’ 30/671 (1899) 55
  • 1899–1905.  Cyril G. Church (1871–?) [The Musical Times (MT)  83/1198 (1942) 376] / [Thoresby’s Dictionary of Organs and Organists (1912) 259]. Salary £91. 16s (Annual Statement for 1899. [P92/AGN/050]).
St Agnes Kennington, London. Organist recruitment advert. 'Musical Times' 40/748 (1905) 362
St Agnes Kennington, London. Organist recruitment advert. ‘Musical Times’ 40/748 (1905) 362
  • 1905.1921. Harvey Grace (1874–1944) [MT 71/1048 (1930)  534] Pioneering editor for Novello and Co. of the organ works of J.s. Bach (1685–1750) and the organ works of Jospeh Rheinberger (1839–1901).
St Agnes Kenning London. Recruitment advert for an assistant organist. '[Source: Musical Times'Advert 54/848 (1913) 685]
St Agnes Kenning London. Recruitment advert for an assistant organist. ‘[Source: Musical Times’Advert 54/848 (1913) 685]

  • 1921-1927. (Sir) William McKie (idem) [MT 92/1299 (1951) 218], assistant organist at St Agnes Kennington and later organist of Westminster Abbey.
St Agnes Kennington, London. Advert for organist [Source: Musical Times 61/924 (1920) 78]
St Agnes Kennington, London. Advert for organist ‘Musical Times’ 61/924 (1920) 78.
  • 1927. Francis J. Kennard [MT 68/1012 (1927) 537]
  • 1935. J. E. Arnold [MT 76/1107 (1935) 442]
  • ?
  • [1950s?] Ralph Covell. [See ‘Ralph Covell’ below]
  • 1958. M. J. Foley of 8 Wanstead Place, London E11 [MT 99/1385 (1958) 397]
  • ?
  • [1960s]-1994. Robert Woolley [correspondence with Christopher Smith, 24.06.21]
  • 1994-2011. Christopher Smith [correspondence with Christopher Smith, 24.06.21]
  • ?
  • 2015-21. Matt Geer
  • 2021-. ?

References

blog | Anglican choral tradition: tempo, timbre & tone

Recently I have been pondering how in the performance of church music a ‘new normal’ is quickly established, overturning previous traditions that are soon forgotten.

Ralph Vaughan Williams. (Source: “The Musical Times”, London, March 1922, p.190)
‘Frontispiece’ of “The English Hymnal” (1906).

For example, the seminal 1906 “The English Hymnal”, whose music editor was Ralph Vaughan Williams (no musical slouch he), in/famously gave metronome markings at the head of each hymn. According to the book’s ‘Preface’ we read”

Speed.-The present custom in English churches is to sing hymns much too fast. It is distressing to hear ‘ Nun Danket’ or ‘ St. Anne’ racedthrough at about twice the proper speed. Metronome marks are added to each hymn, which, the editor believes, indicate the proper speed in a fairly large building with a congrega- tion of average size. (Preface, p. x1v)

The tune 'Adeste fideles from "The English Hymnal" (1906).
The tune ‘Adeste fideles from “The English Hymnal” (1906).

This would seem authoritatively to define performance tempi if one is seeking a proper ‘authenticity’ in the use of that repertoire. But who nowadays would countenance most of these (to contemporary ears) dreary tempi? It seems that within barely a couple of generations a ‘tradition’ has evolved contrary to the evidence. Even Vaughan Williams himself (writing c.1936) appeared ambivalent about what – at face value – seems absolute :

If I remember right the English Hymnal has metronome marks which will give you the tempo which I considered right 30 years ago – but it seems to me that these things depend entirely on circumstances e.g. the size of the building & the number of performers.” [17 May (1936?) : RVW Letters Online].

The historic recordings available through the online “Archive of Recorded Church Music” further demonstrates how, in matters of performance at least, ‘tradition’ – even in the hands of its direct inheritors – is mutable.

Have Mercy Upon Me O God (1611) by William Byrd (1539/40 or 1543–1623), performed 1927 by the choir of St John’s College, Cambridge and un-named instrumentalists, directed by Cyril Rootham; the first ever recording of the choir  (HMV B2448). Time 6′ 22″.

Have Mercy Upon Me O God (1611) by William Byrd (1539/40 or 1543–1623), performed c.2007 by the choir of Magdalen College Choir, Oxford and un-named instrumentalists and director. Time 4′ 03″.

References

 

blog | St Barnabas Walthamstow

St Barnabas church, St Barnabas Road, London E17 8JZ

The church of St Barnabas Walthamstow is located among streets of modest Victorian terraced houses and owes its existence to the generosity of two philanthropists.

 

Houses in St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, London, c.2015.
Houses in St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, London, c.2015.
Houses in St Barnabas Road, Walthamstow, London, c.2015.
The location of St Barnabas Wlathamstow, London E17

The first, Henry Casey (c.1834-1914), was a merchant in the City of London and the owner of much of the local building land and freely gave the land on which the church is built. The second was Richard Foster (1822–1910), another wealthy City merchant, who paid not only for the construction of the church but also for the construction of the vicarage and the hall that is now named after him.

Stafford Hall, London E17. (Source: Wikimedia)
Stafford Hall, London E17. (Source: Wikimedia)

The first church buidling was a temporary corrugated-iron building that was set up in 1900 as a chapel of ease within the parish of St Saviour Walthamstow pending the creation of the separate parish of St Barnabas. That iron buidling is still in situ and in use as a community centre called Stafford Hall.

W. D. Caröe (1857–1938). (Source: Wikimedia Commons).
W. D. Caröe (1857–1938). (Source: Wikimedia Commons).

By 1901 the  separate parish of St Barnabas Walthamstow had been created, the advowson of the vicarage being vested in the diocesan bishop. The present church was opened in 1903. The architect of the church, the vicarage and the hall  was William Douglas Caröe [pr. Ka(r)oh] (1857–1938), son of a Danish diplomat based in the UK. It was the intention that the church should be “a typical specimen of a simple and not expensive place of worship suitable for erection in less wealthy outlying districts where funds are most difficult to come by.” (Saxby, 16-17)  The building, which cost £20,000, is mostly of red brick with stone dressings, a small spired turret at the north-west corner and windows in a late-Gothic style.

 

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, church hall, interior, Caröe (1903)
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, main sanctuary, containing work by The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical Embrodiery (1903), Alex Miller of the Guild of Handicraft (1910); A. W. N. Pugin (c.1845), and Dart & Francis (1903). . Source: Litten, 2003,
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, nave detail. (Source: Litten, 2003)
St Barnabas church (1903), Walthamstow, London. The south-east entrance and Vicarage seen from St barnabas Road.
The eastern end of St Barnabas church (1903) Walthamstow E17 . (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
The west end of St Barnabas church (1903) Walthamstow E17 . (Source: http://queensroadstories.org)
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, interior looking east. (Source: Litten, 2003)

The church has a number of splendid fixtures and fittings many of which are not original to the church but contemporary with it and acquired in the closing decades of the twentieth century. A few are shown here:

 

St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, Lady Chapel altar reredos (1923) by Christopher Webb, from St John’s church Red Lion Square, London (demolished). Source: Litten, 2003
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, altar frontal designed by Caröe (1903 by the Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical Embroidery. Source: Litten, 2003,
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17. Chalice and patten by Edward Spencer, 1873-1938, (Artificers’ Guild), 1933. (Source: Litten, 2003)
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, painted stature of St Barnabas (1946) by Faith-Craft Works. (Source: Litten, 2003)
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, copper candlesticks and cross, (c.1905), by the Guild of Handicrafts. Source: Litten, 2003.
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, oak rood (1921) designed by W. D. Caröe, carved by Nathaniel Hitch. (Source: Litten, 2003)
St Barnabas Walthamstow (1903) London E17, Purbeck-stone font, unknown maker. (Source: Litten, 2003)

The organ

The two-manual organ (1904) by the company of Walter J. Fisher of Oxford is thought to incorporate work by Eustace Ingram of London (Litten, 13) and is located on the south side of the chancel at ground level even though Caröe, the church’s architect, has provided a first-storey gallery for it. The organ case is to the design of W. D. Caroe and was carved by Dent & Francis of Crediton, Devon (Litton 13; 20, fn.6), who worked on other oak fittings in the church (Litten, 8).

 

Organ case – rear, looking west – of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London
The organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London
Power and light switches on the console of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London
The south-east side of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London
Pedal board of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London
Builder’s plate he organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London,
Console of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904, for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London
Organ case – rear, looking east – of the organ built by Walter J. Fisher, Oxford, 1904 for the church of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, London
 References
  • Anglican Church Building in Victorian Walthamstow by S. Saxby. Series: Monograph New Series No. 46. (London: Walthamstow Historical Society, 2014
  • ‘St Barnabas: organ specification‘, National Pipe Organ Register. Online resource accessed  4 No vember 2017
  • St Barnabas and St James the Greater, Walthammstow E17 by J. W. S. Litten (London: PCC of St Barnabas and St James the Great Walthamstow, 2001)
  • ‘Richard Foster (philanthropist)‘, Wikipedia. Online resource accessed 4 November 2017
  • ‘Walthamstow: Churches‘, A History of the County of Essex. Volume 6. (London: Victoria County History, 1973), pp.285-294. Online reource, accessed 4 November 2017
  • ‘Walthamstow, St Barnabas‘, The Church of England: a church near you. Online resource accessed 4 November 20-17
  • ‘W. D. Caröe‘, Wikipedia. Online resource, accessed 4 November 2017

blog | St Aldhelm Edmonton

St Aldhelm Edmonton, London, N18 1PA

The parish of St Aldhelm in Edmonton, north London is a modest late-c19/early-c20 residential area of terraced streets with a rather fine church.

‘William Douglas (‘W.D.’) Caröe’ by Lafayette (Lafayette Ltd) whole-plate film negative, 27 June 1930. [Source, National Portrait Gallery, London. Ref: NPG x70476]
The location of St Aldhelm’s church, London, N18 1PA
Location of St Aldhelm’s church, Silver Street, London N18

The church was built in 1903 to the designs of W. D. Caröe (1857–1938), and replaces an earlier temporary ‘tin tabernacle’ building. The present building is summed up as “a homely Arts and Crafts version of a basilican church, using free Perpendicular detail“. In 1907 a vicarage – also by Caröe – was built immediately north of the church. The halls date from 1883 and 1907-8; architect currently unknown. (Cherry & Pevsner, 63).

The seast end (1903) of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, by W. D. Caröe.
St Aldhelm’s church, London N18. Hall, vicarage and church.
The first church of St Aldhelm, London N18, replaced 1903.
Tne main hall (1908) at St Aldhelm’s church, London N18.
The west fron (1903) of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, by W. D. Caröe.
The south side (1903) of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, by W. D. Caröe.
Detail of the Vicarage, St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, (1903), by W. D. Caröe

This well-maintained church building comprises a chancel, north organ chamber, vestries and a south chapel, aisled nave with west gallery and bell turret (2 bells). The lower half of each nave pillar is panelled and painted, originally dark green. (Cherry & Pevsner, 423).

St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, by W. D. Caröe (1903), the sanctuary.
St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, by W. D. Caröe (1903), looking west.
Under the west gallery of St Aldhem’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903) in 2017.
St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, by W. D. Caröe (1903), looking east.
St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903), view north-east, 2017.
St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903), looking west, 2017.
St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903), panelled aisle pillars, 2017.
St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, by W. D. Caröe (1903), the sanctuary. The reredos painting of the Ascension is by Walter Percival Starmer (1871–1961).

The arrtist Walter Percival Starmer (1871–1961) was employed (1947-8) to provide additional decoration in memory of the parish dead of the Second World War, specifically a delicate scheme of stained glass and an imposing reredos painting of the Ascension. (Another ecclesiastical scheme by Starmer can be found at the church of  St-Jude-on-the-Hill in Hampstead, London; stained glass and murals).

Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the south aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the north aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the north aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the Lady Chapel of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the south aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the south aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the south aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the north aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) on the south side of the west wall of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the south aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the north aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the south aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) in the north aisle of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Stained glass (1947-8) by W. P Starmer (1871–1961) on the south side of the west wall of St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
‘The Ascension’, painting by W. P. Starmer ((1871–1961) above the main altar in the church of St Aldhelm, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903), in 2017.

Each of the internal doors is made to its own design with distinctive metalwork … as these examples demonstrate

Internal south-west-entrance doors in 2017, St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903).
Internal west=entrance doors in 2017, St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903).
Door from choir vestrey to nave, in 2017, St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903)
Door between choir and clergy vestries in 2017, St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903)
Door from choir vestrey to chancel, in 2017, St Aldhelm’s church (W. D. Caroe, 1903)
Internal south-east-entrance doors in 2017, St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903).

The pulpit by W. R. Dale (n.d.) came  from the redundant (1951) London church of St Mary, Spital Square. (Cherry & Pevsner, 63). While the brass lectern seems generic of the period the font seems as if it might be part of Caröe ‘s design not least because of the metalwork on the font’s cover.

Pulpit by W. R. Dale at St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, originally in St Mary Spital, London E1, in 2017.
Lectern at St Aldhelm’s church, London N18, in 2017.
Detail of ironwork on the the font cover at St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903), in 2017.
The font at St Aldhelm’s church, London N18 (W. D. Caroe, 1903) in 2017.

The cost of the new church and vicarage was paid for out of the £36,000 proceeds of the sale of St. Michael Bassishaw church in the City of London (by Christopher Wren, 1679, demolished 1900), a portion of which had already paid for the construction of the nearby church and vicarage of St Michael, Bury Street in Edmonton (also by Caröe, 1901), now converted to secular residential use.

‘St Michael Bassishaw’ by John Coney (1786-1833), engraved by Joseph Skelton (1783-1871) in “Architectura Ecclesiastica Londini; being a Series of Views” (London: J. Booth, 1812).
The former St Miichel’s church and vicarage, Bury Street, London N9, by W. D. Caröe (1901)

The pipe organ

The pipe organ in St Aldhelm’s was built and installed in 1905 by the short-lived north-London firm of Frederick Halliday (fl. 1905-13). Although an unremarkable instrument it is in good condition and quite adequate for accompanying the parish liturgy.

St Aldhelm’s church London N18; the pipe organ (1905) by Frederick Halliday, London.
St Aldhelm’s church London N18; the pipe organ (1905) by Frederick Halliday, London.
St Aldhelm’s church London N18; the pipe organ (1905) by Frederick Halliday, London.
St Aldhelm’s church London N18; the pipe organ (1905) by Frederick Halliday, London.
St Aldhelm’s church London N18; the pipe organ (1905) by Frederick Halliday, London.
St Aldhelm’s church London N18; the pipe organ (1905) by Frederick Halliday, London.
St Aldhelm’s church London N18; the pipe organ (1905) by Frederick Halliday, London.
St Aldhelm’s church London N18; the pipe organ (1905) by Frederick Halliday, London.

Sources

  • ‘W. D. Caröe‘ in Wikipedia. Online resource, accessed 21 November 2017.
  • ‘Edmonton: Churches’, in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5, ed. T F T Baker and R B Pugh (London, 1976), pp. 181-187. British History Online. Online resource accessed 21 November 2017.
  • ‘Frederick Hallliday’ in Directory of British Organ Builders (British Institute of Organ Studies, 2017) Online resource, acccessed 21 November 2017.
  • ‘St Aldhelm’ in The Buildings of England. London 4: North by B. Cherry and N. Pevsner (London: Tale University Press, 2002), p. 63; p. 423.
  • ‘St Aldhelm, Silver Street‘ in The National Pipe Organ Register. Online resource, accessed 21 November 2017.
  • ‘St Aldhelm Upper Edmonton‘ in A Church near You (Archbishop’s Council, 2017), Online resource, accessed 21 November 2017.
  • ‘St Michael Bassishaw‘ in Wikipedia. Online resource, accessed 21 november 2017.
  • Walter Percival Starmer. Artist 1877-1961. Onine resource, accessed 21 November 2017

blog | St Paul the Apostle London N22

St Paul the Apostle, Station Road, Wood Green, London N22 7SY

The north-London catholic church of St Paul the Apostle in Wood Green has perhaps the least kerb-appeal of any church I know. The forbidding (unforgiving) single-storey facade of plain, repeating concrete arches facing onto a busy traffic route gives the building a rather Moorish appearance, there being no obviously Christian signifiers except for a tiny cross high a-top a towering narrow pylon. Indeed I supsect many people driving past might even mistake the place for a mosque in this typically multi-cultural London borough.

The location of the church of St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green, London N22.
The church of St Paul the Apostle (1971), Wood Green, London N22. Source: Wikimedia Commons
The church of St Paul the Apostle (1971), Wood Green, London N22. Source: Geograph

The first church
A Catholic presence was first established on this site in Wood Green in 1884 in a temporary ‘tin tabernacle’ church. A school was established in the same year, based in the ‘tin rabernacle’ until the completion of a one-storey brick schoolhouse behind the church building in 1885.I n 1904 a new church was built next to the former in Romanesque-style by Edward Goldie (1856–1921).

The second church
In 1971 Goldie’s church was replaced by a new church with mew hall, school and presbytry attached, all designed by John Rochford and Partner of Sheffield.

Interior, the church of St Paul the Apostle, London N22. Source: ‘Photographs of London Churches’.
Interior, the church of St Paul the Apostle, London N22. Source: ‘Photographs of London Churches’.
Interior, the church of St Paul the Apostle, London N22. Source: ‘Photographs of London Churches’.
Interior, the church of St Paul the Apostle, London N22. Source: ‘Photographs of London Churches’.
Interior, the church of St Paul the Apostle, London N22. Source: ‘Photographs of London Churches’.

The shape of the church is a pentagon, with the sanctuary at the apex. The interior is plain, even austere, all of brick and concrete, lit from above by clerestory windows. Colour is priovided by a series of stained-glass windows, a number brought from the previous church. Most striking are the huge panels of modern stained-glass that almost completely fill the top half of the wall facing the altar. They were commisioned in 1982 from the Maltese artist Carmel Cauchi on the theme ‘Pilgrim Church’. The interior of the church is larger and loftier than one might have imagined before entering, seating over 600, and yet despite its scale it conjours a quiet and prayerful aura.

The pipe organ

Detail: the pipe organ by Monk & Gunther (1975) in the church of St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green, London N22. Source: Andrew Pink
Detail: the pipe organ by Monk & Gunther (1975) in the church of St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green, London N22.
Detail: the pipe organ by Monk & Gunther (1975) in the church of St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green, London N22. Source: Andrew Pink
Detail: the pipe organ by Monk & Gunther (1975) in the church of St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green, London N22. Source: Andrew Pink
Detail: the pipe organ by Monk & Gunther (1975) in the church of St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green, London N22. Source: Andrew Pink
Detail: the pipe organ by Monk & Gunther (1975) in the church of St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green, London N22. Source: Andrew Pink
Detail: the pipe organ by Monk & Gunther (1975) in the church of St Paul the Apostle, Wood Green, London N22. Source: Andrew Pink

The pipe organ was built (1975) by the now defunct local firm of Monk and Gunther. The pipework on the cantilevered gallery – with console at ground level – makes an impressive visual impact in the buidling. This is not matched by its tonal impact because of its poorly conceived ‘extension’ design, which provides little variety in terms of colour or power, being weak and barely sufficient for accompanying the liturgy in this bustling, well-attended church. Sadly, the instrument seems to have been well built and well maintained, with no signs of needing replacement any time soon.

References

blog | St Pancras Old Church

St Pancras Old Church, Pancras Road, Camden Town, London NW1 1UL

St Pancras Old Church, London NW1, showing its relationship to St Pancras station and the Regent’s Canal.
The location of St Pancars Old Church, London NW!
St Pancras Old Church, London NW1, south side, 2008. Source: Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13429363
St Pancras Old Church, London NW1. A contemporary plan showing the position of funerary monuments. Source: Survey of London.
St Pancras Old Church, London Nw1. Chancel, 2009. Source: John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14254299

I have recently had the opportunity to revisit the medieval church of  Old St Pancras to help out with the music for the main Sunday service there. This was a rather nostalgic visit since I was organist there immediately after my days as a post-graduate organ student at the Royal Academy of Music (1980-81), and I subsequently taught for a while at the parish school.

Old St Pancras church is modest in scale, comprising just an unaisled nave and chancel with a 19th-century tower on the south side. The history of Old St Pancras church is well documented, dating from at least Saxon times while some would claim that the site dates back to the days of the Roman occupation. Images and maps showing the building in its setting are plentiful.

St Pancras Old Church, London NW1. The church depicted before 1815. Source: Survey of London.
St Pancras Old Church, London NW1. The church depicted around 1752. Source: Survey of London.
Anon (c.1775) ‘Sketch of St Pancras fields and distant view of St Pancras Old Church.’ Source: London Metropolitan Archive, ref. p5381780
Anon. ‘The south west view of St Pancras Church and the Wells’ (1750) Source: London Mteropolitan Archive, ref.19970.
A 16th-century plan of the estate of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, showing Old St Pancras Church and its surroundings. Source: Survey of London.
The Long Room at St Pancras Wells, with Old St Pancras Church behind. [Early 18th century]. Source: Survey of London.
St Pancras Old Church, London NW1. The church depicted before 1848. Source: Survey of London.

There was a major rebuilding project in 1848 by the partnership of Alexander D. Gough (1804–71) and Robert Lewis Roumieu (1814–77). At this time, when the  old tower was relocated and redesigned, Continue reading “blog | St Pancras Old Church”

blog | St Andrew Earlsfield

St Andrew’s Church, Garratt Lane, Earlsfield, London SW18 4SR

The location of St Andrew's church, Earlsfield, London, UK
The location of St Andrew’s church, Earlsfield, London, UK

Today Earslfield is largely a late nineteenth-century south-west London suburb, although the area has an interesting history dating back much further, and which I have discussed in my article ‘On the Wandle‘.

The church of St Andrew, Earlsfield, was built in two stages between 1888 and 1902. Its two-acre site was given by Magdalen College Oxford, then rapidly developing large tracts of its land in the area. Despite the elite landlord the population of the area was then charecterised as “Very poor working class, hawkers and coster-mongers, with a proportion of artisans, railway servants, and a  considerable number of people whose incomes are only sufficient for their own necessities”.

 

Details from a drawing by E W. Mountford, architect, of the proposed church of St Andrew Earlsfield, with newspaper cutting, c.1889. London Metropolitan Archive P95/AND1/063
St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK; site plan c. 2016.
Design for St Andrew Earlsfiled, architect E. W. Mountford. ‘Building News’ 20 November 1891
Drawing by E W. Mountford, architect, of the proposed church of St Andrew Earlsfield, with newspaper cutting, c.1889. London Metropolitan Archive P95/AND1/063

The architect for the new church was Edward William Mountford (1855–1908), who undertook a number of church-building commissions in his early career. But he is perhaps best remebered for designing major civic buildings, such as the Sheffield Town Hall (1890) and London’s  Central Criminal Court, ‘the Old Bailey’ (1902).

 

New Sessions House, ‘Old Bailey’, London (1906), architect E.W. Mountford.
Sheffield Town Hall (1897), architect E.W. Mountford.

At the time of its construction, the church was described in a newspaper report as follows:

— NEW CHURCH OF ST. ANDREW, GARRATT LANE, WANDSWORTH —
          The buidling is about to be commenced upon a site presetned by Magdalen College [Oxford], close to Earlsfield Station upon the L. &. S. W. Railway, where a new district has recently been formed, with a population of some thousands, mostly of the working classes.
          The church is necessarily very plain, funds being exceedingly limited. The walls are of brick, faced principally with red: the roofs, covered with Brosely tiles, are internally of tie-beam construction, coiled at the collar. The stone is Doulting, the floor of woood blocks.
          On plan, the church consists of nave, 91 ft. by 30 ft.,  with side aisles and transepts, the chancel being 40ft. by 25 ft., also with north and south aisles, the latter forming [a] side chapel. Seating accomodation for 780 is provided. The choir vestry is large, and will be used as a parish room. The cost will not exceed 6,500l.  The architect is Mr. E. W. Mountford.

 

St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, south side looking west, 2016.
St Andrew Earlsfield c. 1915.Source: Wandworth Libraries and Archives
St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK c.2015
St Andrew Earlsfield, c.1900; view along Garratt Lane looking towards Earlsfield Station. Source: Wandsworth Libraries and Archives.
St Andrew, Earlsfield, London, UK. West front, detail.
St Andrew Earlsfield c. 1915.Source: Wandworth Libraries and Archives

Within the church itself there are a number of interesting decorative features and furnishings, described in 1981 by Bridget Cherry and Martin Pevsner in The Buildings of England, as follows (with some additions):
— Altar front, oak with five painted panels depicting saints but with contemporary heads, said to be portraits of those associated with the building of the church
— Chancel steps – white marble and pavement marble.
— Chancel arcade of brick on square stone piers with shafts at the angles, that to west partly in red brick, some with figure or grotesque stops, one said to be the Architect.
— Chancel floor – Rouge Royal and Black from Belgian Quarries.
— Chancel screen, in slender wrought iron, set on brick plinth, installed 1920’s from church of St. Mary, Trinity Road.

 

St Andrew Earlsfield, looking east, c 2016. Source ‘https://londonchurchbuildings.coms’, accessed 6/8/17.
St Andrew’s church, Earlsfiled, London UK. Clock.

— Doors – oak
— Clock. The large external clock overhanging the west front in an iron frame with filigree decoration, is to Mountford’s design and was installed in 1911: “To the glory of God and in loving memory of his late Majesty King Edward VII. The clock on this church was erected by the residents of Earlsfield, 8th February 1911.” The clock – iluminated at night –  is now maintained by the local authority; its chimes have been disconnected.
— Font, resited in south transept, terracotta with blue stone shafts, Doulton & Co., by G. Tinworth, with counterbalanced oak lid. Octagonal, with four scenes depicting Finding of Moses, Hannah bringing Samuel to Eli, The Saviour in the Manger and The Saviour blessing little children.
— Glass; windows depict British saints, east window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne.
— Lectern, freestanding in brass, made by Starke Gardner & Co. designed by Mountford.
— Nave arcade in five bays, deep red brick arches on stone drum piers.

 

St Andrew’s church Earlsfield, London UK, north aisle screen, as in 2017.
St Andrew Earlsfield, the font, c 2016. Source ‘https://londonchurchbuildings.coms’, accessed 6/8/17.
St Andrew Earlsfield, eample of nave light fittings, c 2016. Source ‘https://londonchurchbuildings.coms’, accessed 6/8/17.

— North screen, timber, installed 1935.
— Pendant light fittings, that over pulpit not modified.
— Pews, moveable oak benches, those from western two bays removed.
— Pulpit, a low octagonal stone drum with pierced oak upper tier reached by stone steps.
— Reredos, behind curtain, a painted triptych of the Transfiguration and flanking angels.

 

St Andrew Earlsfield, south aisle looking east, chapel screen, c 2016. Source ‘https://londonchurchbuildings.coms’, accessed 6/8/17.
St Andrew Earlsfield, south aisle looking east, chapel, c 2016. Source ‘https://londonchurchbuildings.coms’, accessed 6/8/17.
St Andrew Earlsfield, chancel, sedilla and piscina, c 2016. Source ‘https://londonchurchbuildings.coms’, accessed 6/8/17.

— Sedilia in two bays with attached piscina and aumbry under cusped stone arches with dragon stops.
— South aisle window by M.Travers.
— South chapel; east window in form of St.Andrew’s cross depicitng head of the saint, set in stone rose with small circular lights, under cusped stone arch.
— Tiles – Minton.
— Vestry retains simple fireplace, choir vestry lined with cupboards, doors and cupboards with reeded architraves.

The Organ

 

St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, the organ (1921) by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, UK; seen from the chancel, 2017.
St Andrew Earlsfield, London, UK; the chancel, 2017.
St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, the organ (1921) by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, UK, 2017.

The present pipe organ is by Harrison and Harrison of Durham and was installed in 1921. It replaced an existing organ that was ‘on hire’, but from whom is not currently known. The history of the instrument can be traced in parish records to be found in the London Metropolitan Archive.

According to the ‘faculty’ document the cost of the organ was estimated at £2530, and £1325 was paid in advance with the balance to be met by a public subscription, less a £600-grant made by the Carnegie Trust referred to in the Diocesan faculty document. This would appear to mean that the organ fund stood at £1925 and left the parish with a bill of just about £600,

 

St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, the organ (1921) by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, UK. peadl board, as in 2017.
St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, the organ (1921) by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, UK; builder’s plate.
St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, the organ (1921) by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, UK. Watkins and Watson on/off switch at the console, for the blowing machjinery, as in 2017.

Indeed, the builder’s specification of 3 June 1919 describes a large three-manual organ, but by 6 September 1919 the specification was already savagely trimmed to just nine stops, with the rest of the instrument being left ‘prepared for’, at a lower cost of £1200, plus £125 for biowing plant by Watkins and Watson (previously agreed, 30 May 1919). This in total is the £1325 referred to in the faculty document. This suggests that either the Carnegie money was not forthcoming or it was used for other things. Possibly it was used to meet the separate (and unforeseen?) costs of having to”remove the present Organ” and having “to erect a Power house upon part of the Vicarage garden, connected by a Wind trunk to the organ through the Church wall.” (LMA DS/F/1921/10/3).

 

St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, the organ (1921) by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, UK. Console, right-hand side in 2017.
St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, the organ (1921) by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, UK. Console, left-hand side in 2017.
St Andrew Earlsfield, London UK, the organ (1921) by Harrison & Harrison of Durham, UK. Console, right-hand side in 2017.

Presently, the organ is well maintained, and the nine stops that exist are most attractive in sound. In such a woefully incomplete state many would think that this instrument is barely suited even to the most basic hymn accompaniment. And yet for nearly 100 years the parish liturgy seems to have carried on quite happily with the organ arranged just as it is.

References

  • ‘Earlsfield: St Andrew‘, Find A Church: Diocese of Southwark. Online resource, accessed 12 July 2017.
  • ‘Edward William Mountford‘, Wikipedia. Online resource, accessed 12 July 2017.
  • ‘St Andrew, 571 Garratt Lane‘, National Pipe Organ Register. Online resource, accessed 12 jluly 2017.
  • ‘St Andrew Earlsfield’, The Buildings of England: London 2: South by B. Cherry and N. Pevsner (Harmondsworth, Penguin: 1983) pp. 701-02
  • ‘St Andrew, Garratt Lane, Earlsfield’, London Churches in Photographs. Online resource accessed 6 August 2017.
  • ‘St Andrew, Earlsfield: Garratt Lane, Wandsworth. ‘P95/AND1’, London Metropolitan Archive. [Records deposited by the Vicar in the London County Record Office, 27 February 1957. Further records deposited by the Vicar in the Greater London Record Office, 9 July 1987. Acc/2472 Ac/57/012].

blog | St Augustine of Canterbury Highgate

St Augustine of Canterbury, Langdon Park Road, London N6 5QG

“One of the best furnished churches in London”, said the Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman (1906–84) about the north-London Anglican church of St. Augustine of Canterbury. The church is a Grade-II-listed building that faces the Archway Road, just north of the distinctive bridge spanning that road.

Location of St Augustine-of-Canterbury church, Highgate,London N6 5QG
Location of St Augustine-of-Canterbury church, Highgate,London N6 5QG

The church as we see it today was created in several stages during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by three architects: John Dando Sedding (1838–91), Henry Wilson (1864–1934), J. Harold Gibbons (1878-1958). It is a distinctive mix of late Victorian Gothic and early twentieth-century Arts and Craft styles. The adjacent vicarage of 1901 is by J.S. Alder (1847–1919).

The foundation stone of the new church was laid in 1887 and the part-finished buidling was consecrated in 1888, the next stage of work being undertaken by Henry Wilson, one of Sedding’s pupils.

The church of St Augustine of Canterbury, the interior c.1975. (Source: Sanders, 1975).
The church of St Augustine of Canterbury, the selected design by J. D. Sedding. (Source: Sanders, 1975).
John Dando Sedding (1838-91), 1882, by H. S. Mendelssohn (1847-1908).
The church of St Augustine of Canterbury, the ground plan, as envisaged (c1887) by the architect J. D Sedding. (Source: Paul Bell, 2012).
The church of St Augustine of Canterbury, the completed west front c.1975. (Source: Sanders, 1975).
The church of St Augustine of Canterbry, Highgate, Lolndon. Unbuilt design proposal by James Brooks. (The Building News, 13 February 1888)
The church of St Augustine of Canterbury, the selected design by J. D. Sedding. (Source: Sanders, 1975).
West-front Calvary, the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK)
The church of St Augustine of Canterbury, the ground plan, as envisaged (1914) by the architect J. Henry Gibbons. (Source: Paul Bell, 2012).

The west front was not completed until Easter 1914, the work of J. Harold Gibbons. The west front is adorned with a life-size stone Calvary, which led to a noisy Protestant demonstration seeking to stop the dedication of the church later that same year; 20 June 1914.

The church of St Augustine of Canterbury, a view of the nave detroyed by fire. (Source: Paul Bell, 2012).
The church of St Augustine of Canterbury, a view of the nave detroyed by fire. (Source: Paul Bell, 2012).

A disastrous fire on the night of 11 January 1924 entirely destroyed the nave and required a major programme of rebuilding, which was undettaken by J. Harold Gibbons. It was at this time he added the 2-bay  organ gallery on the south side of the chancel, and a new Sacristy. In 1930 Gibbons completed the Lady Chapel, with a decorative scheme by Nathaniel Westlake, Henry Wilson, and Christopher Whall.

The Lady Chapel, 2002, in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK). (Source: John Salmon, Wikimedia)
The Lady Chapel, 2002, in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK). (Source: London Churches in Photographs)
The Lady Chapel, in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK). (Source: Paul Bell. 2012)

In the ensuing years the church has aquired  some fine fittings, artworks and stained glass by – among others – Henry Farmer (fl. early c20), Lawrence King (1907-81), J. Linthout & Co. (Bruges), Margaret A. Rope (1882–1953), Adrian Gilbert Scott (1882–1963), Christopher Whall (1849–1924),  Nathaniel Westlake (1833–1921).

Stained glass by Margaret A. Rope in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK). (Source: Paul Bell, 2012)
Stained glass by Margaret Rope in the church Of St Stained glass by Margaret A. Rope in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK). (Source: Paul Bell, 2012)Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK). (Source: Paul Bell, 2012)
Lady Chapel in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK); metalwork grill designed by Henry Wilson depicting a tree of life and seven stars.
Stained glass by Margaret A. Rope in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK). (Source: Paul Bell, 2012)
High altar in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London (UK), by Adrian Gilbert Scott, and J. Linthout.

The Pipe Organ

The current pipe organ dates from 1925-6, and was built by the London firm of A. Hunter and Sons of Clapham (London UK). The atractive case – designed by J. H. Gibbons – dominates the south side of the chancel. Although the instrument has remained incomplete for lack of funds it serves well, and sounds impressive in the generous acoustic.

Console of the organ by A. Hunter and Sons (1924) in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London N6. (Source: National Pipe Organ Register)
Organ case by J. H. Gibbons in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London N6. (Source: London Churches in Photographs)
Programme for an organ-recital by George Thalben-Ball, St Augustine’s church Highgate, London on 25 October 1975. [page3/3]
Programme for an organ-recital by George Thalben-Ball, St Augustine’s church Highgate, London on 25 October 1975. [page2/3]
Musicians gallery with organ case by J. H. Gibbons in the church of St Augustine of Canterbury, Highgate, London N6. (Source: London Churches in Photographs)
Programme for an organ-recital by George Thalben-Ball, St Augustine’s church Highgate, London on 25 October 1975. [page1/3]

 

The Twentieth-century Folk Mass: a celebrated musical premier

On 13 October 1957 St. Augustine’s was the venue for the first liturgical performance of the “Twentieth-century Folk Mass” by Rev. Geoffrey Beaumont CR (1904–71), a product of the once influential Twentieth-century Church Light Music Group. According to Beaumont, the composition was the result of a chance conversation with a priest-colleague in London’s then impoverished East End who was deeply concerned that church music was utterly foreign to the majority of people.

From the first litrgical performance of Geoffrey Beaumont's "A Twentieth-century Folk Mass" Celebrant: Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald. (Source: Church Times Archive).
From the first litrgical performance of Geoffrey Beaumont’s “A Twentieth-century Folk Mass” Celebrant: Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald. (Source: Church Times Archive).

That first liturgical performance of Beaumont’s mass-setting was broadcast live by the BBC and caused quite a stir at the time. The Daily Express declared that “this disturbing racket . . . was one of the most incongruous things ever seen on TV”, while the Musical Times  dismissed it as music suited to the fetid atmosphere of a night club or cabaret.

This recording (below) was made by the original performers in the run up to the performance at St. Augustine’s: Cantor, John Alldis;  Musicians/singers, The Peter Knight Orchestra and Singers; Conductor, Peter Knight;  Organist, William Davis.

References

blog | St Joan of Arc Highbury

St Joan of Arc’s Church, 60 Highbury Park. London N5 2XH

The nave in the church of St Joan of Arc (c.2000), Highbury, London
The location of St Joan of Arc church in Highbury, London
St Joan of Arc church in Highbury, London (n.d.) from a parsih publication of 2013

The Catholic parish of St Joan of Arc in north London (UK) achieved a certain prominence during the 1990s when it was the local church of choice for the former British Labour Party leader and later Prime Minister Tony Blair and his family. However, the parish has two rather more interesting claims on posterity.

Firstly, ths buidling is the immediate succesor of the first Catholic church anywhere in the world dedicated to St Joan of Arc. From 1918 local Highbury Catholics had worshipped in the chapel of a convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns but increasing numbers of worshippers required the provision of a separate church.

The interior c.1950 of the first church of St Joan of Arc in Kelross Road, London N5
The main entrance c.1950 to first church of St Joan of Arc in Kelross Road, London N5

This new church was opened on 13 October 1920 just five monrths after Joan’s canonisation (16 May 1920). When the Carmelites left Highbury in 1953 the convent site was used for a new and much larger church designed by Stanley Kerr Bate (b.1906–?), which opened on 23 September 1962.

The church of St Joan of Arc church in Highbury, London; detail of west fron and tower c.1990
The church of St Joan of Arc church in Highbury, London; detail of west fron and tower, c.1990

Secondly, the new church tower was the first in England to be provided with a radioactive lightning rod. (Taking Stock). The idea behind this device –  Early Streamer Emission theory – was that a small quantity of radioactive isotopes at the tip of the rod greatly increased the lightning capture area. The theory has since been discredited. Worriyingly, with such devices there is always a risk that the effects of weathering and poor maintenance allows radioactive material to be released in an uncontolled way into the environment. I have no idea if this dubious device is still in place on the tower at St Joan’s.

The piston setter of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The console of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017.
Detail of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The console of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The pedal division of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
Detail of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
Builder’s plate on the organ in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017
The choir gallery in the church of St Joan of arc, Highbury, London, 2017
Detail of the organ by J. W. Walker and Sons (1963) in the church of St Joan of Arc, Highbury, London, 2017

The very nice neo-baroque pipe organ (1963) is by J. W. Walker and Sons Ltd, and is divided either side of the front wall of a spacious choir gallery at the west end of the nave. The largest pedal pipes are in a separate case on the gallery.

References

blog | Our Lady of Willesden

St Mary’s Church, Neasden Lane, London NW10 2TS

Where is Willesden?
The ancient settlement of Willesden – dating back to at least Anglo-Saxon times – lies approximately five miles north-west of Charing Cross ‘as the crow flies’, a little way west from the main A5 road (the Roman ‘Watling Street’) that runs from the capital and on past Willesden. Until the coming of the railway in the 1870s the area remained largely rural and sparsely populated; around 300 residents in 1086 and only 751 in 1801. (British History Online). The area is now densely built up and largely residential with an ethnically diverse population. A crisis food-bank run by the Trussle Trust operates next door to the church, a reflection of the area’s many deep pockets of deprivation.

The location of the church of St Mary Willesden, 5.9 miles north west from Charing Cross,
Map c.1750 showing location of St Mary’s Willesden
The Tussle Trust logo http://www.trusselltrust.org

History
According to the UK National Archives the story of the parish dates back to at least 937 when Aethelstan (c.894-939) the first king of England defeated the Danes at the battle of Brunanburh (Bamburgh, Northumberland). As a thank-offering Aethelstan gave the royal manors of Willesden-cum-Neasden to St Paul’s Cathedral, whose clergy (Dean and Chapter) still nominate the parish priest at Willesden.

The church of St Mary’s church Willesden, c.1807 seen from the west (Brent Archives Collection),
The church of St Mary Willesden see from the west c.2015, showing the south aisle added late c19
The church of St Mary Willesden seen from the east (Neasden Lane) c.2015,
Plan of St Mary’s Church, Willesden, from ‘An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Middlesex (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1937)

The parish church
The present-day church building seems to date from the thirteenth century with additions made in the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Nave, chancel, and south aisle, showing the south-porch entrance and baptistry, at St Mary’s church Willsesden. ©Andrew Pink 2016
St Mary’s Willesden, the nave looking towards the chancel and St Katharine’s chapel, c.2010 ©Bob Speel; http://www.speel.me.uk.
Nave, chancel, south aisle and St Katherine’s chapel at St Mary’s church Willsesden. ©Andrew Pink 2016
Nave, chancel, and nineteenth-century north aisle at St Mary’s church Willsesden. ©Andrew Pink 2016

Notable fittings are the Purbeck-marble font c.1150, the fourteenth-century inner door to the south porch, fourteenth-century nave arcades, some sixteenth-century altar plate, pre- and post-Reformation memorial brasses and a striking ‘Black Madonna’ image of the Virgin Mary (1972) created by the English sculptor Catharni Stern (1925-2015).

Fourteenth-century south-porch door at St Mary’s church Willsesden. ©Andrew Pink 2016
‘Black Virgin’ statue, 1972, by Catharini Stern (1925-2015) in the St Katherine’s chapel, St Mary’s church, Willesden. ©Andrew Pink 2016
‘Black Virgin’ statue, 1972, by Catharini Stern (1925-2015) in the St Katherine’s chapel, St Mary’s church, Willesden. ©Willesden PCC, 2000
‘Black Virgin’ statue, 1972, by Catharini Stern (1925-2015) in the St Katherine’s chapel, St Mary’s church, Willesden. ©Willesden PCC, 2000
Font c.1150, church of St Mary Willesden, London. ©Andrew Pink 2016

Our Lady of Willesden
From the late-1400s until the English Reformation period (c.1530 onwards) Willesden church appears in the records as one of a number of well-known English pilgrimage destinations dedicated to the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ.  Those seeking succour of the Virgin demonstrate their devotion to her through the hardship of a pilgrimage on foot to a place where they could offer their intentions before her image. At Willesden the Virgin’s image was place in the chancel.

While the relatively few primary sources we have are reliable and clear on the place of Willesden in England’s devotional life, it is entirely unclear how the particular tradition of Marian pilgrimage arose at Willesden, given that images of the Virgin then would have been ubiquitous in every Christian place of worship.

St Mary’s Church, Willesden. A memorial brass, thought to be of Frances Welles (1560). Behind her kneel two boys and four girls. Image ©Andrew Pink 2016
St Mary’s Church, Willesden. Memorial brass of Margaret Roberts (1505). Image ©Andrew Pink 2016
St Mary’s Church, Willesden. Memorial brass to Bartholomew Willesden c.1492, and his wife Margaret. Originally part of a much larger memorial (Gb BL Landowe MS 874 f 78b). Image ©Andrew Pink 2017
St Mary’s Church, Willesden. Memorial brass to Edmund Roberts(1585) The shields: left, the arms of the Roberts/Patenson families; centre, the arms of the Roberts family; right, the arms of the Roberts/Welles. Edmund’s first wife (right) Fraunces Welles. Behind her are her two sons and four daughters. Edmund’s second wife (left) is Fayth Patenson. Standing behind are her two sons and one daughter.©Andrew Pink 2017

The earliest reliable mention of pilgrimage to Our Lady of Willesden dates from 1502 when Queen Elizabeth (1466–1503), wife of Henry VII (1457–1509), sent money to Willesden and other Marian pilgrimage destinations across England, perhaps to solicit prayers for the impending birth of her seventh child. Also, in February 1503, shortly after the Queen’s death, an allowance of money was paid:

to a man that went on pilgremage to our lady of Willesden by the quenes commaundement. (Valentine, 8)

Funeral effigy of Elizabeth of York (1465-1503) Westminster Abbey Museum © Dean and Chapter of Westminster
Anonymous portrait c.1505 of Henry VII (1457–1509),
Anonymous portrait of Elizabeth of York (1465-1503)

Legal records provide more evidence. In 1509 Elizabeth Sampson of Aldermanbury (London) was accused of insulting the statue of Our Lady of Willesden. In 1521  William Dorset of King’s Langley (Hertfordshire) was accused of stopping his wife from making a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Willesden on the grounds that it was a waste of money (Valentine, 9)

Memorail brass of William Litchfield (d.1517) in St Mary's church Willesden. ©Andrew Pink 2017
Memorail brass of William Litchfield (d.1517) in St Mary’s church Willesden. ©Andrew Pink 2017

In 1517 William Litchfield (var. Lychfeld, Lichfield &c), Vicar of Willesden and Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral died and was buried in the chancel of Willesden church before the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Litchfield also gave to the church a gilt chalice, ‘the same to remain to the use of the said Church and the honour of the Blessed Virgin for ever.’ (Wadsworth et al, 12) and this chalice is still in regular use. Litchfield’s memorial brass can be seen in the floor of the chancel.

St Thomas More
In 1525 the two youngest daughters of the catholic saint Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) – Elizabeth and  Cecily – were married at Willesden, in a chapel (‘oratorio’) at the house of the MP Sir Giles Alington (1499-1586), Alington was the second husband (m.1524) of More’s step-daughter Alice Elrington (nee Middleton, d. before 1564). The house and chapel were 2.5 miles from Willesden church at West Twyford;  property that came to Alington on his martiage to Alice, it having been the property of Alice’s first husband Thomas  Elrington (d.1523). (Places in Brent, 1)

James Peller Malcolm (1767-1815). The chapel and manor house at West Twvford (c.1800). Source: Collage https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk
Location of St Mary’s West Twyford and St Mary’s Willesden
St Mary’s Chapel, West Twyford, now incorporated into a later church building, c.1958. Source: London Churches in Photographs https://londonchurchbuildings.com
St Mary’s Chapel, West Twyford, London, now incorporated into a later church building, c.1958. Source: London Churches in Photographs https://londonchurchbuildings.com

Thomas More made reference to the shrine at Willesden in his Dialogue concerning heresies (1528/9). Later, in An Answer to Thomas More’s Dialogue (1531), the avowedly Protestant William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536) complained of those who endlessly repeat:

Our lady of Walsingham pray for me; Our Lady of Ipswich, pray for me; Our Lady of Wilsdon, pray for me. (Valentine 13)

Sit Thomas More (Hans Holbein, the younger)
‘Thomas More and Family’ painted c.1590 by Rowland Lockey (c.1565–1616) after an original c.1527 by Hans Holbein the younger, now lost..
Wiliam Tyndale (1494-1536)

During 1527 the reform-minded priest Thomas Bilney (c.1495–1531) was arraigned for preaching against pilgrimages, even doing so in Willesden church itself in Whitsun week that year.

'Priests pulling Bilney out of the pulpit, Saint Georges churche in Ipswich', in John Foxe (1653) 'Actes and Monuments (Book of Martyrs)'.
‘Priests pulling Bilney out of the pulpit, Saint Georges churche in Ipswich’, in John Foxe (1653) ‘Actes and Monuments (Book of Martyrs)’.

You do not well to goo on pilgremage to our Lady of Walsinghan, Ipswiche, or Wyllesdon, or to any other place and there to offer for they be nothing but stocke and stones, therefore it were better to tary at home and pray to God there. (Valentine, 11)

Thomas More later stated that the character of his Protestant interlocutor in the Dialogue concerning heresies was actually based on Thomas Bilney.

More’s biographer Thomas Stapleton (1535-98) says that More regularly made pilgrimages on foot to shrines up to seven miles from London, thus encompassing Willesden. One such pilgrimage to Willesden was during the first week of April 1534, with More staying at the home of Giles and Alice Alington just days before his final arrest and eventual execution/martyrdom. (Mitjans, 67).Thomas More was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935.

Pewter pilgrim badge of Our Lady of Willesden. Design of the Virgin and Child within a crescent moon, 1466-1500. Museum of London 001349
Pewter pilgrim badge, Our Lady of Willesden; the Virgin and Child within a crescent moon, 1466-1500. Museum of London 001349

Willesden pilgrim badge
In recent times a distinctive design of medieval pilgrim badge often found in the London area – although not in Willesden – has been attributed to the shrine of Our Lady of Willesden. (Spencer)

Destruction
The end came for Our Lady of Willesden in the autumn of 1538 when:

all the notable Images unto the whiche were made anie speciall Pilgrimages and Offerynges were utterly taken awaye as the Images of Walsingham, Ypswiche, Worcester, the ladie of Wilsdon with many other.  (Edward Hall, d. 1547, cited in Valentine, 15)

There is no record of the value of any items associated with Marian devotion at Willesden at the time of the statue’s demise, nor is there (so far) any record of a revival of  Willesden as a pilgrimage destination during the Catholic restoration that took place during the reign (1553-8) of Queen Mary Tudor. Even so, as late as 1563, in the Second Book of Homilies, a newly reformed Church of England was still inclined to warn against idolatrous invocations to: our Lady of Walsingham, our Lady of Ipswich, our Lady of Wilsdon and such other. (Valentine, 15)

Legends
Contrary to the rather fanciful stories about Willesden as a pilgrimage destination that have circulated since the nineteenth century, there is no reliable evidence of there having been: – a curative holy well; – appearances of the Virgin; – miracles, – holy relics; – any description of a shrine. Within the church today there is no architectural evidence to indicate the church’s history as a place of pilgrimage, indeed the building seems typical of so many formerly rural Middlesex churches of this age.

Today
All that remains to connect the medieval Marian pilgrimage traditions with the present day are the prominent modern statue of Our Lady and the chalice of 1517. But who knows what still waits to be discovered in the archives or under the ground?

The church is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. The building is open during the day (check parish website) and the people are very friendly. And despite its location on a busy main road, as you walk up the little lane to the church entrance with its vast burial ground beyond, it is not hard briefly to forget the gritty urban location.

Pipe organ in the west gallery, St Mary’s Willesden. ©Andrew Pink 2016
Pipe organ in the west gallery, St Mary’s Willesden. ©Andrew Pink 2016
Pipe organ in the west gallery, St Mary’s Willesden. ©Andrew Pink 2016

The organ
The rather fine pipe-organ is the work of J. W. Walker and Sons, and is a two-manual mechanical-action instrument installed iin 1983 n a purpose–built west gallery. One third of the cost of the new instrument was met by a generous donation from John Roberts of Virginia, USA, whose antecedents had once lived in Willesden.

References

  • Diane K. Bolton, et al, ‘Willesden‘, in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7, Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden, ed. T. F. T. Baker and C. R. Elrington (London, 1982). British History Online. Onoline resource, accessed 1 April 2017. NB the references to the shrine are not up to date and thus not reliable.
  • Bindoff, S. T. (ed.). ‘Alington, Giles (1499-1586)‘, in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558. (London: History of Parliament Trust, 1982). Online resource, accessed 1 April 2017.
    This item also details the marriage of Alice Middleton to Thomas Elrington of Willesden.
  • [Brent Council] Places in Brent: Twyford and Park Royal. Information leaflet. Online resource, accessed 19 April 2017.
  • Melanie Rose Landman, An Investigation In To The Phenomenon Of The Black Madonna (University of Roehampton: PhD diss, 2012)  p. 133. Online resource, accessed 7 November 2023.
  • Daniel Lysons, The Environs of London: Volume 3, County of Middlesex (London, 1795), British History Online. Online resource, accessed 1 April 2017
  • Frank Mitjams (2008) ‘Thomas More’s Veneration of Images, Praying to Saints and Going on Pilgrimages‘, Thomas More Studies 3, 64-69. Online resource accessed 1 April 2017,
  • St Mary’s Willesden: the pipe organ (National Pipe Organ Register). Onine reosurces, accessed 1 April 2017,
  • Parish information (Diocese of London website). Online resource, accessed 1 April 2017
  • Brian Spencer. Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges. Series: ‘Medieval finds from excavations in London’, vol. 7. (Woodbridge: Boydell Press with Museum of London, 2010)
  • Kenneth J. Valentine. Our Lady of Willesdon (London: Willesden Local History Society, 1988; 2nd ed. 2005)
  • Cliff Wadsworh et al. 1000 Years of St. Mary, Willesden (London: Willesden Local History Society, 2006)
  • [Wikipedia] Catharni Stern. Online resource, accessed 1 April 2017
  • Willeseden Local History Society (Society website), Online resource, accessed 1 April 2017

blog | St Botolph Aldgate

St Botolph’s Church, Aldgate High Street, London EC3N 1AB

Last Saturday, at St Botolph’s-without-Aldgate church in central London, I attended the Annual General Meeting of the Organ Club. The church building is home to what is considered to be  England’s oldest parish-church pipe organ still in its original position with most of its original insides still present.

Church of St Botolph-without-Aldgate, London (1741-4), c.2015
Church of St Botolph-without-Aldgate, London (1741-4), c.2015

The church building is named after an East Anglian saint who died in 680 and it is located at the site of a former entrance gate to the City of London, the Aldgate (removed 1761). A church building here was already in existence here by 1115. It was substantially rebuilt during the sixteenth century and survived the Great Fire of London (1665).

Church of St Botolph-without-Aldgate, London (pre-1741)
The City of London’s Aldgate, c.1609

The present church building dates from 1741-45 and was built to the designs of John Dance the Elder (1695–1768) who re-aligned the building from its former east-west axis to a north-south one.

The church of St. Botolph-without-Aldgate, c.1850
Church of St Botolph-without-Aldgate, London (1741-4); interior looking west (c.2000)

The area covered by the parish of St Botolph straddles an administrative border that separates the City of London from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The location of the parish of St Botolph-without-Aldgate, shown on the 1741-5 map of London by John Rocque
Parish of St Botolph Aldgate, outlined in red, on the1741-5 map of London by John Rocque
Present-day location of the church of St Botolph-without-Aldgate c.2017

From the later seventeenth century the parish came to be characterised by poverty, disease and poor housing with only a minority of wealthier inhabitants and was in receipt of substantial poor relief and a high level of charitable giving. As the City of London has developed so the resident population of the parish has dwindled significantly and now the parish is dominated by office blocks and riven by busy roads, but even so the church itself retains an air of calm within.

Church of St Botolph-without-Aldgate, London (1741-4); interior looking east (c.2000)
The keyboards of the organ in St Botolph-without-Aldgate, London, c.2010

The present-day pipe organ was first installed in the sixteenth-century building in about 1704 by the organ builder Renatus Harris (c.1652-1724). It was transferred into the replacement building in the 1740s by the organ builder John Byfield (1694-1751) and in 2005 it was faithfully restored by the firm of Goetze and Gwynn.

YouTube Video: William Boyce 'Voluntary No. 4' from Ten Voluntaries for Organ or Harpischord (London: Thompson, c.1785) performed by Robert Woolley at St Botolph's Aldgate (June 2011)

References and further reading

blog | Our Lady and St Catherine of Sienna Bow

Our Lady & St Catherine of Siena, London E3 2SG

Present-day Bow (pr. boh) is a densely populated area of inner London on the west bank of the River Lea just east of the City. From at least the early Middle Ages it was known as Stratford-at-Bow – ‘Bow’ apparently a reference to the elegance of its arched bridge – to distinguish it from Stratford Langthorne on the opposite bank of the River Lea. These days the two places are simply known as Bow and Stratford respectively.

An early nineteenth-century map, showing Bow and the many arms of the adjacent River Lea.
Bow Bridge during demolition works in 1835
Bow Road, looking east c.1793.
Church of Our Lady & St Catherine of Sienna (1870), Bow, London E3

Some history of Bow
As a result of Bow’s proximity not only to the River Lea and its ready supply of water power and water transport but also to the London docks the area has traditionally relied on industrial production and trade of goods: flour mills, slaughter houses, tanneries, dye factories, and – in the eighteenth century –  fine porcelain. The Bow China Works was one of the earliest centres outside China successfully to produce porcelain-style goods and as a result was sometimes referred to as ‘New Canton’.

Figurine of a lady falconer (Bow Porcelain Factory c.1755)
Watercolour, “taken from behind ye China House at Bow” by Jeffryes Hammett O’Neale (fl. c.1754-1768),
Bow porcelain teapot, c.1758
Charles Booth's Poverty Map of Bow (1888-9)
Charles Booth’s Poverty Map of Bow (1888-9)

By the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth the area was a by-word for insalubriousness although the social reformer Charles Booth (1840-1916) typified the area’s population as covering a range of of living conditions from “Poor” to “Fairly comfortable”

Gilbert Robert Blount (1819-76)
Gilbert Robert Blount (1819-76)

The Catholic church of Our Lady and St Catherine
Bow’s Catholic church of Our Lady and St Catherine of Siena was designed by Gilbert Robert Blount (1819–76) and opened in 1870 to serve a newly created parish. This new parish was established by a community of Dominican nuns who had previously run (1865-7) the St Mary’s School and Orphanage in Walthamstow, not so far away in north-east London. The Dominicans left Bow in the 1920s (moving to Stone in Staffordshire, where they remain), and the Archdiocese of Westminster became directly responsible for running the parish and its schools.

In addition to the church, Blount’s architectural scheme included a convent connected to the church and school buildings. These buidlings remain to this day. Some are used as the presbytery, parish halls and social facilities while others are home to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Church of Our Lady and St Catherine of Siena (1870), Bow, London E3
Church of Our Lady and; St Catherine of Siena (1870), Bow, London E3 c.2000
Church of Our Lady and; St Catherine of Siena (1870), Bow, London E3 c.2000
Church of Our Lady and; St Catherine of Siena (1870), Bow, London E3 c.1900
Church of Our Lady and St Catherine of Siena (1870), Bow, London E3 c.2000

The pipe organ
According to the National Pipe Organ Register, in 1911 the church possessed a pipe organ by the firm of Bishop and Sons. It must be assumed that this organ was destroyed along with the nave by enemy bombing in the Second World War. The nave was rebuilt after the war and the present west-gallery organ is reputed to have come from one of the chapels in Holloway Prison, north London, supplied by the London firm of Hill, Norman and Beard Ltd (HNB). Since there is no builder’s plate on the instrument it is unclear if HNB made the instrument or merely moved it.

Pedal board. Our Lady and St Catherine of Sienna Catholic church London E3, pipe organ by Hill, Norman and Beard.
Organ front. Our Lady and St Catherine of Sienna Catholic church London E3, pipe organ by Hill, Norman and Beard.
Great-organ stops. Our Lady and St Catherine of Sienna Catholic church London E3, pipe organ by Hill, Norman and Beard.
Swell- and pearl-organ stops. Our Lady and St Catherine of Sienna Catholic church London E3, pipe organ by Hill, Norman and Beard.
Console.. Our Lady and St Catherine of Sienna Catholic church London E3, pipe organ by Hill, Norman and Beard.
Pipe-shade detail. Our Lady and St Catherine of Sienna Catholic church London E3, pipe organ by Hill, Norman and Beard.

The organ is unassuming and gentle in tone, perhaps not best suited for supporting a sung liturgy even in this modest-sized church, but it is in very good playing condition with a light, responsive mechanical action.

References and reading
– Bow, London (Wikipedia)
– Bow Porcelain Factory (Wikipedia)
– Charles Booth Poverty Maps
– Gilbert Blount (Wikipedia)
– National Pipe Organ Register
– Parish website 
– Taking Stock: Catholic Churches in England and Wales

blog | St Peter Walworth

St Peter’s Church, London SE17 2HH

Walworth (Saxon: Wealawyr, 1006) and Newington (Niwetun, 1212) were once separate hamlets along the road leading south from London Bridge. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the area was noted for its public gardens and commercial small-holdings, especially those cultivating fruit and flowers. The population of the district was – surprisingly – very little affected by its proximity to London until the early nineteenth century,

Map (2017) showing the location of St Peter’s Walworth
Location of St Peter’s Walworth, London SE17
John Fairburn’s 1802 Map of London, showing Wllworth

Late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century maps depict Walworth as a pleasant country neighbourhood with a few newly-formed roads stretching across the gardens and fields. However, the formation of these new roads after 1754 brought an impetus to build well-to-do housing, and in 1808 the Walworth Road was described as being lined with elegant mansions. Between 1800 and 1820  the population of Newington increased from 14,847 to 44,526, although as late as 1853 when the author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) lived there she found it a “charming retreat” with a view from the windows of sheep and lambs grazing in a meadow.

Richard Cuming ‘A view at Walworth’ (1779)
New Kent Road, Walworth, c.1905
John Smith House at 144-152 Walworth Rd, c.2015

But steadily throughout nineteenth century many of the area’s genteel Georgian-/Regency-era houses were pulled down and replaced by dense blocks of dwellings and three-storey terraced houses. By the end of the centiry the whole area was closely packed with streets of working-class houses, shops and industry.

Amelia Street, Walworth c.1978
Villa Street, Walworth, c.19o7

Large-scale post-war public-sector regeneration of housing resulted in the demolition of much of the earlier developments, replacing them with modernist estates of public housing, which in turn are now being replaced by estates of new private sector housing.

A promotional image for ‘Elephant Park” (under construction 2017), which replaces the former public housing once provided by the Aylesbury Estate
Aylesbury Estate, c.1997

In 1820, faced with a rapidly expanding population, the authorities sanctioned the creation of St Peter’s church (opened 1825) to the design of Sir John Soane (1753–1837), his first church, and it remains his most complete surviving church building. The  parish is a thriving community and the building stands in excellent condition.

St Peter’s Walworth (1825), c.2014
St Peter’s Walworth, (1825) c.2015
St Peter’s Walworth (1825), c.2014
St Peter’s Church, Liverpool Gardens, Walworth, c.1905
St Peter’s Walworth (1825), staircase to west gallery, c.2014
St Peter’s Walworth, church plate, c.1952
St Peter’s Walworth (1825) c.2014

The west-gallery pipe-organ facade and gilded pipes belong to the first instrument (1824/5) installed in the west gallery, made by the London firm of Henry Cephas (H. C.) Lincoln (fl.1810-55). The original organ no longer exists. The current instrument by the firm of Harrison of Durham was moved here in 2010 from the chapel of Whitelands College, Putney, where it had first been installed, in 1949.

St Peter’s Walworth (1824), pipe organ, pedals, in 2017
St Peter’s Walworth (1824), pipe organ, builder’s plate, in 2017
St Peter’s Walworth (1824), pipe organ console in 2017.
St Peter’s Walworth (1824), pipe organ, facade by H. C. Lincoln (1824), in 2017
St Peter’s Walworth (1824), pipe organ Swell and Pedal stops, in 2017
St Peter’s Walworth (1824), pipe organ, console, in 2017
St Peter’s Walworth (1824), pipe organ, Great organ, in 2017

blog | St Michael and All Angels Walthamstow E17

St Michael and All Angels, London E17 6PQ

Context
Walthamstow is an ancient settlement on the east bank of the River Lea, for which records date back to the time of King Edward the Confessor (1003-66). It is now absorbed within the north-east London suburbs.

Walthamstow c.1840. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol6/pp240-250
Location of St Michael and All Angels church, London E17. Google Maps.

With the coming of the railway in the middle of the nineteenth century the area saw rapid housing development by a variety of independant property speculators building homes for the respectable working and lower-middle classes, and much of the buidling stock dates from this time. Even so, the area around the medieval parish church maintains an air of earlier times, and self-consciously promotes itself as ‘Walthamstow Village’.

Walthamstow Village, c.1998 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walthamstow_Village,_1998.jpg
St Mary’s church, Walthamstow, London
‘Walthamstow Village’ c.2016. https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/public-space-improvements-walthamstow-village
Walthamstow Village, 15th-century ‘hall house’ at Orford Road, Walthamstow, London
‘Walthamstow Village’ c.2016. https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/public-space-improvements-walthamstow-village

Walthamstow’s nineteenth-century population boom brought a need for new churches and by 1903 there were twelve Anglican churches and seven Anglican missions in Walthamstow; in 2017 there are nine Anglican parishes.

The church building
Among walthamstow’s new church buildings the church of St Michael and All Angels (1885) is the largest, established with the generous support of the financier and philanthropist Richard Foster (1822-1910). This Grade II listed church has an imposing interior augmented by stained glass windows by Hardman & Co. and has the highest nave roof of any church in the Chelmsford Diocese.

St Michael’s  is built in an Early English Gothic style using dark brown brick to a design by the little-known Joseph Maltby Bignell  (1827-87) who spent much of his architectural career working as an assistant to Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78). St Michael and All Angel’s is – for now – his only known completed building.  Since 2021 the building has been on Heritage England’s ‘At Risk’ register (Grade C: slow decay)  due to high-level water damage to brickwork caused by the original guttering’s inability to cope with increasing rainfall; a consequence of climate change.

St Michael and All Angels, Walthamstow, London E17, c.1907 (J.M. Bignell, 1885). http://boroughphotos.org/walthamforest/
St Michael and All Angels, Walthamstow, London E17 (J.M. Bignell, 1885). http://www.geograph.org.uk/
St Michael and All Angels, Walthamstow, London E17, c.1907 (J.M. Bignell, 1885). http://boroughphotos.org/walthamforest/
Lady Chapel. St Michael and All Angels, Walthamstow, London E17 (J.M. Bignell, 1885). John Salmon @churchcrawler
St Michael and All Angels, Walthamstow, London E17 (J.M. Bignell, 1885). http://www.geograph.org.uk/

The pipe-organs
Currently the church has two pipe-organs. One, of indeterminate origin, is in a gallery on the south side of the chancel. It has two manuals and pedal and replaced an earlier one-manual and pedal organ that was situated here. The current instrument was  decommissioned some decades ago when its console was removed and replaced by a now rather tired and unattractive sounding electronic instrument by the Allen Organ Company; our expectations of digital technology have moved on!

St Michael and All Angels church, Walthamstow, London E17. Allen organ console. South Choir gallery.
St Michael and All Angels church, Walthamstow, London E17. South Choir gallery pipe-organ.

The other pipe-organ is a rather nice Victorian, one-manual and pedal instrument in a handsome ‘Gothick’ case placed in the south east corner of the nave. It was built by the firm of G. M. Holdich originally for a church in the Essex countryside, where in 1965 it underwent restoration by the firm of N, P Mander. The instrument seems to have come to Walthamstow in about 2003. It has a bold, bright sound and while it is no masterpiece it is well-suited to congregational accompaniment and is almost contemporary with the building.

St Michael and All Angels church, Walthamstow, London E17. G. M. Holdich pipe-organ pedal board.
St Michael and All Angels church, Walthamstow, London E17. G. M. Holdich pipe-organ keyboard.
St Michael and All Angels church, Walthamstow, London E17. G. M. Holdich

We can date this instrument from G. M. Holdich’s business address given on the builder’s plate: ‘Euston Road, Kings Cross, London’ from where the firm traded between 1858 and 1866. This fact contradicts a date of  1844 that is given on a recent donor’s plate on the side of the organ.

St Michael and All Angels church, Walthamstow, London E17. G. M. Holdich pipe-organ, builder’s plate, 2003.
St Michael and All Angels church, Walthamstow, London E17. G. M. Holdich pipe-organ builder’s plates.
St Michael and All Angels church, Walthamstow, London E17. G. M. Holdich pipe-organ donor’s plate, 1965.

References

playlist | Ein guter neuer Dantz: Renaissance dances

Renaissance dance music: 1577-1629

Ein guter neuer Danz' edited by Hans Haselbock (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1989)
Ein guter neuer Danz’ edited by Hans Haselbock (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1989)

This set of nine brief and unpretentious renaissance-era dances are either in G or F and make playful use of  of F\F# and C\C# contrasts, thus adding  spice to the already piquant quarter-comma temperament used in this recording. They are useful little pieces for the liturgical organist, but also make a pleasing concert item when played as a set

Further reading

Technical notes.
– Edition: Ein guter neuer Dantz Ed Hans Haselböck (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1989).
– Temperament: Quarter-comma meantime (pure thirds); pitch A=427 
– Organ: Viscount Sonus 60
– Microphone: Zoom Q2N-4K 
– Recordings: ©Andrew Pink (2023). All rights reserved. Creative Commons licence: [Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International]

#TheOrganShow #InternationalOrganDay  #internationalorganday @InternationalOrganDay @internationalorganday #PlayTheOrgan @PlayTheOrgan

Recordings©Andrew Pink
Material on this page is published under the Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) : Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. All rights reserved.

blog | St Thomas Finsbury Park

St Thomas the Apostle, Finsbury Park, London N4

Tucked away in an undistinguished later-nineteenth-century suburb of north London is the Anglican parish church of St Thomas the Apostle, Finsbury Park. The areas will be known to many as the home of the Arsenal Football Club whose former Highbury Stadium (1913-2006) was close by the church. The football club’s new Emirates Stadium (2006) is located a little further away to the south west. The former stadium site is now a housing estate named Highbury Square.

St Thomas the Apostle parish church, London N4: Location. the Church is on the corner of St Thomas Road & Monsell Road, London N4 2QP a few minutes walk from Arsenal tube station.
The geographical context of St Thomas the Apostle parish church in London N4.
Highbury Square, c.2015, site of the Arsenal Football Club’s former Highbury Stadium.
Typical houses in St Thomas Road, London N4 c.2015
Aerial view (1957) of the home of Arsenal Football Club from 1913 until 2006. Aerofilms Collection. Annotated.
St Thomas’s Road, London, N4, looking towards the old Highbury stadium (c.2010), with the roof and spire of St Thomas the Apostle parish church visible in the mid-distance..
Highbury Square, c.2015, site of the Arsenal Football Club’s former Highbury Stadium.
The church of St Thomas Finsbury Park, shown on the Charles Booth ‘Poverty Maps’ (1898-99). [Source: https://booth.lse.ac.uk]

The parish of St Thomas the Apostle was formed out of the surrounding Islington parish in 1888 and owes its origin to a decision by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to sell-off a number of churches in the City of London (Union of Benefices Act, 1860).  The reason for the sales was that the burgeoning London suburbs had been rapidly emptying the City of its population and in order to defray the cost of the new suburban churches a number of underused City churches were sold.  St Thomas’s church was paid for by the sale of St Matthew’s Church, Friday Street for £22,005, the advowson of the new parish being held by the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1898-99 the area was regarded as ‘middle class and well-to-do’. (Booth). The same is generally true today.

John Crowther (1837-1902) ‘Interior view of St Matthew Friday Street’ (1881). Source, London Metropolitan Archive q7706594
John Coney. ‘St Matthew’s Church, Friday Street’, Engr. T Skelton (1814). Source: City of London TA 31332
Anon. ‘Plan of St Matthew, Friday Street’ (1882). Source: London Metropolitan Archive q7706660
H.W.B. ‘St Matthew’s Church: Ruins before final demolition’. Source: City of London TA 04997
Anon. ‘St Matthew, Friday Street, exterior’, c18. Source: City of London TA 31328

The new church building of St Thomas the Apostle cost £7,500 and was the work of Ewan Christian (1814–95), architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. It is built of brick and stone in Christian’s favourite Early English style and was consecrated in 1889. It consists of chancel (with a sedila of Derbyshire marble), nave (with arcades in blue stone), aisles, a chapel at the east end of the south aisle, baptistery, organ chamber, north and south porches and a turret.

The west end of the church of St Thomas the Apostle, Finsbury Park, London N4 Built 1888-89 to the designs of church architect Ewan Christian (1814-1895) Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved] © Copyright Julian Osley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
St Thomas’s Road, London, N4, looking towards the old Highbury stadium (c.2010), with the roof and spire of St Thomas the Apostle parish church visible in the mid-distance..
St Thomas the Apostle parish church, London N4: west end, roof and spire.
The east end of the church of St Thomas the Apostle, Finsbury Park, London N4 Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved] © Copyright Julian Osley and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The church building is largely unaltered since it was opened in 1889 and despite its small scale and modest appearance is – once inside – quite lovely and spacious in feeling. It is well maintained and well used. In the 1990s the chancel and sanctuary were redecorated in a period style by the English muralist Alan Dodd (b.1944).

St Thomas the Apostle parish church, London N4. South aisle chapel, looking east, c.2013. Source © Copyright John Salmon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
St Thomas the Apostle parish church, London N4, interior looking east, c.2013. Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved] © Copyright John Salmon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Chancel and Sanctuary of St Thomas the apostle parish church, London N4 (c.2010) . Source: The National Churches Trust http://www.nationalchurchestrust.org

The pipe organ is original to the building, installed in 1889 by the (now defunct) local firm of Alfred Monk. Inevitably, after nearly 130 years of constant use the organ is now rather tired and in need of some mechanical refreshment, for which fundraising is underway. Even so, while this is no recital instrument it has a strong clear sound and continues to serve the parish well in accompanying the liturgy.

The builder’s plate on the 1889 organ in St Thomas the Apostle parish church, London N4
The console of the 1889 Alfred Monk pipe-organ in St Thomas the Apostle parish church, London N4, c.2009
The pipe organ by Alfred Monk (1889) in St Thomas the Apostle parish church, London N4 c.2016.

 

v

blog | St Monica Hoxton

The Augustinian Priory of St Monica, Hoxton Square, London N1

I recently had a chance to play the pipe-organ at the Augustinians’ priory in Hoxton Square, just north of the City of London. Who knew that the  Augustinians continue a 150-year presence in Hoxton, or that the Hoxton Priory was the first Augustinian house to have been established in England since Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries?

Hoxton Square, London (UK), the north end of the eastern side, showing (l-r) the school, church and priory of St Monica, built 1864-66 for the Augustinians, by E. W. Pugin (1834-75).
Hoxton Square, street sign
Hoxton Square, London, (UK), looking towards the the north end of the eastern side, showing (l-r) the school, church and priory of St Monica, built 1864-66 for the Augustinians, by E. W. Pugin (1834-75).

Hoxton Square was built up by London merchants during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. By the time of the Augustinians’ arrival in the 1860s the area was – as Charles Booth’s ‘poverty maps’ (1889) indicate – a socially very mixed area with the comfortably off living side by side with the very poorest. At this time the area was largely given over to trade and manufacture, especially the furniture trade. It was also home to alms-houses and private mad-houses (lunatic asylums).

A legend, for Charles Booth’s ‘Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, 1898-9’; the black marker indicates Hoxton Square. (Source: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/).
Detail of Charles Booth’s ‘Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, 1898-9’; the black marker indicates Hoxton Square. (Source: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/). The Priory church, house and school, occupies the northern end of the eastern side of the square.
Charles Booth’s ‘Maps Descriptive of London Poverty, 1898-9’; the black marker indicates Hoxton Square. (Source: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/).

Just thirteen years later, Charles Booth in his Life and Labour of the People in London (1902) gave a bleak assessment of the population:

The character of the whole locality is working-class. Poverty is everywhere, with a considerable admixture of the very poor and vicious … Large numbers have been and are still being displaced by the encroachment of warehouses and factories … Hoxton is known for its costers and Curtain criminals, for its furniture trade … No servants are kept except in the main Road shopping streets and in a few remaining middle class squares in the west.

This area is now seeing much better days, and is best-known for its trend-setting creative industries and galleries, popularly satirised of late for its population of so-called ‘hipsters’, or should that now be ‘yuccies’?

Hipsters or yuccies?
Hipsters or yuccies?
Hipsters or yuccies?

The Augustinians’ priory buildings (1864-66) – church, priory house and school – were designed by E. W. Pugin (1834-75). The church is dedicated to St Monica, the mother of the Order’s patron, St Augustine of Hippo (354-430); the town of Hippo is now present-day Annaba in Algeria. The elaborate decoration of the church’s chancel has recently been restored and is splendid.

St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); nave, looking east, before the renovation of the chancel decorations.
St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); part of the restored decoration of the chancel
St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); aisle, looking west.
St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); part of the restored decoration of the chancel
St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); original wall decoration.

The pipe-organ (1866) is on a gallery at the west end of the church made by the London firm of Bishop and Sons, probably for this church. The handsome case however, belies an incomplete and dull instrument. My guess is that it arrived incomplete for want of funds and was never finished.

The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK)
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); pedal board
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); cooer left-hand stop jamb
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK)
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK)
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); lower left-hand stop jamb
The pipe organ (1866) in St Monica’s Priory, Hoxton, London (UK); right-hand stop jamb

Nowadays it is in a sorry condition and scarcely passes muster. The poor-sounding pipework and the worn-out mechanics are probably not special enough to warrant restoration, but  even if restored this pipe-organ would not be particularly useful. I suspect that the case and visible pipework will always have to remain, being part of the historic fabric. Meanwhile, we can only hope for a generous benefaction finally to allow the commissioning of  a new instrument for the old case that is worthy of the location and its traditions.

blog | Jane Parker-Smith in recital

Freemasons Hall, London WC2

Yesterday I went along to an early evening organ recital performed by Jane Parker-Smith on the recently restored and enlarged pipe organ in the Grand Temple of the Freemasons Hall in central London, UK.

Freemasons Hall London WC2, c 2016
Jane Parker-Smith; her official website photograph, 2016.

It is some thirty or more years since I last heard Jane Parker-Smith perform – my fault and not hers – and I was looking forward to hearing and seeing again the showy technical brilliance and the vivacious stage presence that I remembered so clearly as her hallmark. To give you some idea think of a ‘Kate Bush’ of the organ world.

These days  Jane Parker-Smith presents a more strikingly sober figure than in her early career, and there is a less obvious desire to dazzle as was evident in her modest introductory speech and black concert attire; the programme notes went so far as to compare her with the famously serious pianist Martha Agerich.

Despite her demurely presented introductory speech Parker-Smith’s demanding programme was  brilliantly performed. Technical wizardry is still in evidence – as seen in close up via two large video screens relaying the console – but here now is also a considered interpretative authority.

Part of the organ (1933) built by Henry Willis and Sons Ltd. in the Grand Temple at Freemasons Hall, London. Rebuilt and restored (2016) by Harrison and Harrison Ltd.
Part of the organ (1933) built by Henry Willis and Sons Ltd. in the Grand Temple at Freemasons Hall, London. Rebuilt and restored (2016) by Harrison and Harrison Ltd.
Jane Parker-Smith taking applause after her recital at Freemasons Hall, London WC2, on 14 December 2016.
The present-day console of the organ (1933) built by Henry Willis and Sons Ltd. in the Grand Temple at Freemasons Hall, London. Rebuilt and restored 2016 by Harrison and Harrison Ltd.

Of all the organists I have heard so far in this short series of recitals – part of celebrations marking 300 years of the Grand Lodge of English freemasons – Jane Parker-Smith seemed to be the most at home with this instrument. The Grand Temple has a dry acoustic, designed for clarity of speech rather than the presentation of music; every note and the silences between notes are crystal clear. It is perhaps Jane Parker-Smith’s life lived more in the demanding acoustic of the international concert hall than the looser acoustics of the average church buidling that contributed to her entirely assured playing on this occasion.

Jane Parker-Smith, organ recital in the Grand Temple at Freemasons Hall, London, 14 December 2016; programme
Jane Parker-Smith, organ recital in the Grand Temple at Freemasons Hall, London, 14 December 2016; programme cover.

The programme was largely of (to me) unfamiliar pieces of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this regard I was particularly struck by the virtuosic concluding pages of Variations on ‘Adeste Fideles’ by Belgian-American organist/composer Gaston Marie Dethie (1875-1958).

An evening such as this would not be properly concluded without an encore, and Jane Parker-Smith gave us an arrangement of Flight of the Bumble Bee by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), effortlessly and impishly thrown-off con brio as we could all see and hear, and it was rapturously received. Go Jane!

So maybe Jane Parker-Smith’s excuberant dazzle is not entirely a thing of the past?

Jane Parker-Smith taking applause after her recital at Freemasons Hall, London WC2, on 14 December 2016 [detail]
Jane Parker-Smith taking applause after her recital at Freemasons Hall, London WC2, on 14 December 2016.

blog | that thing when church singers …

On music for the Mass

“Full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else”. Sacrosanctum concilium (1963) 1.II.14

You know that ‘Thing’ … ?

liturgy… when amateur church-musicians unaware of their own limitations (cannot keep time; cannot follow a simple melody line; cannot be heard) plan an ambitious musical offering for a parish liturgy, and arrive without any preparation of the music they have chosen, and then – with a visiting organist – expect to be fully in command after a 10 minute run-through, which also includes teaching the people-in-the-pew their part.

liturgyIt  was soon evident that this was new repertoire for everyone, including me, the visiting organist, except that I had spent a couple of hours in the past couple of days preparing my own copies and playing through to be thoroughly familiar and off-page when needed. Professional? C’est moi!

How is this type of ‘carry on’ in providing parish-church music meant to fulfil the Church’s fundamental principal of “full and active participation” in the liturgy? And ‘no’, under the circumstances, using a sound system makes no sense – even less in a small-chapel-of-a-building – only amplifying the shambles!

That Thing!

blog | St Mary of Eton Hackney Wick

St Mary-of-Eton, Hackney Wick, London E9 5JA

Where is Hackney Wick?

Hackney Wick is an ancient settlement to the east of the City of London, once owned by the Templars; ‘Wick’ is derived from a Saxon term denoting a small settlement. Hackney Wick is situated at the southern-most edge of Hackney Marshes, on the west bank of the tidal River Lea, close to the point where it empties into the Thames. Even today some large open tracts of land remain, now used mostly for sports and recreation, not least venues for the 2012 London Olympics.

Hackney Wick canalside, 2012
Map of Hackney Marsh, London c.2012
Hackney Marsh c2000
The River Lea and the London Olympic[ic Park c2015 (www.flickr.com/photos/simon__syon/)
Hackney Wick canalside, c2013
Hackney Wick

Urban development

Canalisation of the River Lea began in the late eighteenth century and from then until the later twentieth century the Hackney Wick waterside became an industrial zone taking advantage of the plentiful supplies of water and easy access to the London Docks; smelting works, paper mills paint making, and other chemical-based process were pioneered here. For example the earliest plastics, Parkesine and shellac, were first commercially produced in Hackney Wick, as too the first dry-cleaning agents and a number of synthetic dyes.

View of farm buildings near a stream in Hackney Wick c1795
Factory buildings viewed across a field, near Hackney Wick c1795
Factory buildings near Hackney Wick c1795
Hackney Wick canalside, c2013
Parkesine factory, Hackney Wick, London, c.2013
Berger paint factory, Hackney Wick, London c1900

With industrialisation came a massive population increase, since in those days workers lived close to where they worked. Six thousand people lived in Hackney Wick by 1879. The nearby River Lea was heavily polluted by factory effluent and raw sewage. In the 1880s the social reformer Charles Booth mapped Hackney Wick and noted that most of the the inhabitants were very poor and in extreme want.

The location of St Mary-of-Eton church London E9, c.2000.
The location of St Mary-of-Eton church London E9, c.1898, from William Booth’s ‘Life and Labour of the People in London’: http://booth.lse.ac.uk
The location of St Mary-of-Eton church London E9, c.2000.
The location of St Mary-of-Eton church London E9, c.1898, from William Booth’s ‘Life and Labour of the People in London’: http://booth.lse.ac.uk

Eton School steps in

At about this time Eton School opened an Anglican mission in Hackney Wick, where there had not previously been a church presence. This became the parish of St Mary of Etion and a fine Gothic-revival church was built (1890-92) to the design of G. F. Bodley (1827–1907) & Thomas Garner (1839–1906), extended in 1911-12 by C. G. Hare (1875–1932).

St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, looking south-west, c.2000
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, viewed from the north east c.1892
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, from the north east c.2000
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9; looking east c.2000
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, bell-tower gate and courtyard flanked by church (r) and hall (l), c.1950
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, viewed from the south east c.1906
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, the pulpit c.2013
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, looking west, c.2000
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, the sanctuary c.2013
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, from the south east c.2000

From 1959 and throughout the 1960s the Eton MIssion developed a thriving youth club (the 59 Club), hosting up-and-coming bands such as Cliff Richard and the Shadows, seen here in 1962ventertaining Princess Margaret when she visited the Eton Mission. Although the youth club is no more its motorcycle section is still-thriving as the ’59 Club’, as is the Eton Mission Rowing Club and several football and rugby clubs.

Eton School continued active support of the church until the 1970s. At about the same time all heavy industry began to leave the area.

Recent changes

After many years of decline and social deprivation Hackney Wick is now experiencing rapid post-industrial regeneration driven by the arrival of high-tech and creative industries that are taking advantage of the former factory sites and now very pleasant waterside situations. A major and much-acclaimed restoration and redevelopment of the church and its adjacent property was concluded in 2015, providing housing and new church facilities, while retaining the original church intact.

St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, west front, showing 2015 residential additions, c.2016.
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, viewed from the south west, new buildings c.2015
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, interior, looking north-east, c.2016
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, looking west, c.2015
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9,; the sanctuary c.2015

Pipe organ

In 1965 a fine two-manual organ was installed in the church at a cost of £3,500 by the firm of Grant, Degens and Rippin (1965), their opus 12. This instrument replaced the existing organ (1898) made by the firm of J. W. Walker. Very little of the old instrument was retained, apart from a few bass pipes. The new organ featured in an EMI recording of some of J. S. Bach’s chorale preludes played by the organist Simon Preston accompanied by the English Singers (ref. HQS 1131).

Even today, the instrument has a bold contemporary appearance; its stark unenclosed pipework sits on a high platform at the south-west end of the nave. The console was originally placed on a platform opposite but following the full restoration of the organ (2015), during the church’s restoration and redevelopment, the console is now on the floor of the church at the south-east,

St Mary of Eton, Hackney Wick, London; the organ restoration funder’s plate 2016
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, organ console and sanctuary, 2016
St Mary of Eton, Hackney Wick, London; the organ console 2016
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, organ-builder’s plate, c.2016
St Mary-of-Eton church (1890), London E9, interior, looking sotuh-west, c.2016, showing the organ (1965)