Tag: St Thomas the Apostle

From Friday Street to 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.

The church of St Thomas Finsbury Park, shown on the Charles Booth ‘Poverty Maps’ (1898-99). [Source: https://booth.lse.ac.uk]
Highbury Square, c.2015, site of the Arsenal Football Club’s former Highbury Stadium.
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.
Typical houses in St Thomas Road, London N4 c.2015
The geographical context of St Thomas the Apostle parish church in London N4.
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..
Aerial view (1957) of the home of Arsenal Football Club from 1913 until 2006. Aerofilms Collection. Annotated.
Highbury Square, c.2015, site of the Arsenal Football Club’s former Highbury Stadium.

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.

Anon. ‘St Matthew, Friday Street, exterior’, c18. Source: City of London TA 31328
John Crowther (1837-1902) ‘Interior view of St Matthew Friday Street’ (1881). Source, London Metropolitan Archive q7706594
H.W.B. ‘St Matthew’s Church: Ruins before final demolition’. Source: City of London TA 04997
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

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.

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

 

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